The Nomination and Confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court

After watching the televised confirmation hearing of Ketanji Brown Jackson this morning, I now have a faint hope that our country (and more particularly, our Congress), exhausted by the partisan bickering and open nastiness of the past several years, is finally poised for a turn toward (if not a complete return to) civility in our political processes.

In that regard, I would encourage you to turn on the television and watch the confirmation hearing live, or at least catch the highlights on your favorite news cast. This is what you will see: A panel of U.S. Senators respectfully asking probing but fair questions of the nominee, and in turn, a smart, articulate judge honestly and earnestly answering the questions posed. It’s a welcome and stunning reversal from the shameful and embarrassing displays we have all been subjected to in recent years. And what is most notable in the whole process is that while the nominee is in fact a liberal-leaning, African-American woman, for once it actually appears (in large part) that the nominee’s political leanings, gender and race are wholly irrelevant AS THEY SHOULD BE.

We are all best served by having the very best and brightest legal minds on the United States Supreme Court, irrespective of their packaging. It’s the right of the President to nominate the candidates and it is the duty of the Senate to insure that the candidates meet that standard. The rancors of the political process belong elsewhere and political debates are properly addressed at the ballot box. There is no place for politics in the Senate confirmation hearings once the elections are over.

While today’s confirmation proceedings have occasionally provided a brief glimpse of the bad habits of the recent past, on the whole, the proceedings have been properly conducted and represent a comforting and much-needed return to the civil and balanced, democratic procedures envisioned in our Constitution. Let’s all just hope that today’s proceedings mark the beginning of a positive trend and that we will see more of the same in future years irrespective of which political party controls the White House and the Senate.