By: Ashleigh Lowe, Undergraduate Intern
President Biden has announced plans to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. This raises the question: why has it taken so long for a Black woman to serve on the Court? The Supreme Court was meant to be “a representative institution in touch with the varied facets of American life” (New York Times). Presently, the U.S. is projected to be ‘minority white’ by 2045 (Brookings). Most American cities are becoming increasingly diverse as their minority populations increase (Brookings). So, if the U.S. is becoming increasingly diverse then why is our Supreme Court not following suit? Currently, 7 of the Supreme Court Justices are White, one is Black, and one is Latina.
Traditionally, nomination processes have favored cis white men due to the fact that society views them as most qualified. Societally, whiteness and maleness are upheld as symbols of intelligence. This factors into who the U.S. officials nominated to the court. When women were first nominated onto the court, a White woman was nominated before a woman of color. We need to look past our biases in order to increase representation across the country. So, "the fact that no Black woman has been nominated shows a deficiency of the past selection processes, not a lack of qualified candidates to be nominated to the Supreme Court” (NPR).
So, who is Biden considering nominating? We’ve compiled a list of the frontrunners for you here:
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit
Justice Leondra Kruger: California Supreme Court
Judge J. Michelle Childs: U.S. District Court of South Carolina
Interested in sharing your own "Thought Of The Day" or TOTD? Email us at wss@msu.edu.
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