While running for the Presidency in 2020 Joe Biden promised to appoint the first black, female Supreme Court justice. In January when a place opened up on the court, he repeated that pledge. To only murmurs of concern. Is this really how things have to work in America?
Last week the president announced that he was going to put forward Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the lifetime appointment. Democrats were thrilled. Most Republicans saw a trap and kept away. Almost no one dug any deeper. But they should.
Because if they did, they would find out a number of things. Not just that there are far better qualified candidates, including better qualified black female candidates. But that Jackson’s own career shows she is unsuitable for the role.
It is now eight years ago since Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 crashed into the sea, killing all 239 people on board. Among them was one American man, Philip Wood, a 50-year-old IBM executive from Texas.
In the traumatic months after the crash, Wood’s family sought to gain justice for their family in the courts. They imagined the American court system would help them. They were wrong.