Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

A consequence of cucumbers

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / KBJ in Birmingham

KBJ in Birmingham

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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke yesterday at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama at a memorial to mark the 60th anniversary of the KKK bombing there that killed four girls. Here’s a gift link to a NYT article about KBJ’s speech. Excerpts from the article below:

In a speech from the pulpit of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Justice Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court, said that she made her first trip to Alabama “to commemorate and mourn, celebrate — and warn…”

“If we’re going to continue to move forward as a nation we cannot allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth or history,” Justice Jackson told a crowd of hundreds. “It is certainly the case that parts of this country’s story can be hard to think about. I know that atrocities like the one we’re memorializing today are difficult to remember and relive. But I also know that it is dangerous to forget them.”

“We cannot forget because the uncomfortable lessons are often the ones that teach us the most about ourselves,” she added. “We cannot forget because we cannot learn from past mistakes we do not know exist.”

The Times says it’s “rare” for a Supreme Court justice to speak publicly on civil rights issues. Prior to KBJ’s speech, only Justices Breyer and Marshall “have made notable appearances at civil-rights-related events,” according to the article. It also notes that when justices do appear in public, they usually stick to law school lectures or commencement addresses in academic settings or judicial conferences.

That last part is not quite accurate. According to an oil painting commissioned by billionaire GOP sugar daddy Harlan Crow, Clarence Thomas has addressed plutocrats and Fed-Soc bigwigs in luxurious yet casual settings over brandy and cigars. I’m sure we still don’t know the half of it.

KBJ’s colleague Samuel Alito regularly complains in public about unfavorable press and asserts that he and the court are exempt from Congressional oversight. I think Amy Coney Barrett appeared at a Mitch McConnell shindig a few years back to absurdly claim the court’s Fed-Soc Six are apolitical.

Their greed and naked partisanship stand in stark contrast to the civic and moral clarity of Ketanji Brown Jackson, who sees what’s happening in parts of this country and told the truth about it yesterday. She’s worth 10,000 Fed-Soc hacks as a force for good in public life, and it’s a shame there aren’t networks of billionaires eager to elevate more KBJs to the highest court in the land.

Like Ron DeSantis, Ketanji Brown Jackson grew up in Florida, and both went to Harvard Law School. From there, their paths diverged sharply. In a sense, they represent a fork in the road for America too. One path leads to ignorance, hate and division while the other bends toward truth, knowledge and reconciliation. I hope we choose wisely.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    sab

    Ketanji Brown Jackson’s appointment alone is enough for me to vote again for Biden. And I was against it at the time ( ” Another  Harvard grad appointment? There are other law schools beyond Harvard and Yale.”)  Not that I need another reason to vote for Biden. Just admitting I was wrong on that.

  3. 3.

    sab

    Also too, yay Florida. Ketanji Brown and her father are native Floridians, not weird imports. She is also part of what makes Florida Florida. Solid, competent, striving but not crooked. Lots of that in Florida

    ETa Particularly in, but not only in, the Black community.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    @sab: Ever since Obama interviewed her for the Scalia vacancy, I’ve thought KBJ’s experience as a public defender would be valuable on the court. I don’t think any other justice was a public defender.

  5. 5.

    DMcK

    …it’s a shame there aren’t networks of billionaires eager to elevate more KBJs to the highest court in the land.

    Disagree. It’s a shame that networks of billionaires have such a disproportionate influence on the makeup of our core institutions one way or another.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    That last part is not quite accurate. According to an oil painting commissioned by billionaire GOP sugar daddy Harlan Crow, Clarence Thomas has addressed plutocrats and Fed-Soc bigwigs in luxurious yet casual settings over brandy and cigars.

    I’m sure the Times doesn’t consider that “public.” Just a gathering of close friends.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I believe Biden has appointed a lot of public defenders to the lower courts too.  It’s been hard to do in the past because police and prosecutors opposed it.

  10. 10.

    sab

    @Betty Cracker: Ever since Scalia said he would only hire Harvard or Yale clerks I have had a huge prejudice against Harvard or Yale appointees. Too inbred.

    Which was majorly prejudicial against Ketanji Brown. I am sure many factors were against her getting into that Scalia tiny pool of favored applicants. And she beat them all.

    I was wrong. She is impressive.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    @sab:

    You’re not wrong.  The elite schools are overrepresented as a general matter.  That doesn’t mean any particular individual from those schools is a bad pick.

    ETA: It’s the same dilemma we face with striving for any other type of diversity.  Like Biden being a white dude.

  12. 12.

    Geminid

    Justice Jackson’s speech was reported yesterday on the CBS radio news. They cover only 3 or 4 stories at most in their short broadcasts, so they thought it significant and included a soundbite of her speaking.

    The radio story also described the occasion: the commemoration of the terrible church bombing that killed four girls. I think many of the listeners did not know this ever happened and for those who did know, it was a good reminder.

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    My weekend sports-ball viewing schedule is a mess of dilemmas. Tonight the Rays are playing at the same time as the Gators. Tomorrow the Rays are playing at the same time as the Bucs. I wonder if teams even try to take regional sports fandom into consideration when they’re making schedules. They should, damn it!

  14. 14.

    sab

    I am a white midwesterner. My twenty year old Black granddaughter wants to move to Richmond Va with her white boyfriend if he gets a job offer, which he very well might.

    Her living in Va in an interracial couple freaks me out. I know Virginia has changed a lot since I was engaged to a Virginian from Alexandria in 1978, but I am still very anxious. Have things changed so much that she might be safe?

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @sab:

    Pretty sure the answer is yes.  Especially compared to Ohio these days.  Richmond might even be majority black, but I’m not sure.

    ETA: Geminid is a Virginian. He would know better.

  16. 16.

    sab

    @Betty Cracker:  Of course they don’t. Why does Major League Baseball have opening day in the Midwest between opposing teams in the Midwest, where there will be a blizzard every year, when those early games could be scheduled somewhere in the South? Tis a puzzlement, but never guess good intentons.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    On judicial nominations. From a Harvard Gazette article on Justice Jackson.

    Prosecutors historically receive a disproportionate share of judicial nominations, making up about one-third of federal judges. Only 79 of the 1,077 sitting U.S. District Court judges were once public defenders, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Only eight of the 810 sitting judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals were public defenders, including Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit who had before that served on the bench of federal District Court in D.C.

  19. 19.

    sab

    @Baud: I am hopeful she’ll be happy. Everyone Black person I know who can go South has gone go South.  It’s Home . My ancestral homeland was Scotland two hundred years ago. Hers was the South.

    Still worried about her safety.

  22. 22.

    Geminid

    @sab: From what I see around me, I think they would be safe living in Richmond. Interracial couples are not uncommon in Greene County, and Augusta County was the same when I lived there. They don’t seem to attract violence. I guess it’s possible an interracial couple might be targeted by a White Supremacist nutjob, but at this point I don’t think those are any more prevalent in Virginia than in Ohio.

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    FL Repubs in disarray!

    ORLANDO — The latest contest between former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida came down to a loyalty pledge. And Florida Republicans on Friday evening chose Trump.

    Top officials in the Republican Party of Florida, under pressure from Trump supporters, voted to remove a provision in its state bylaws that required any candidate seeking to be on the March 19 presidential primary ballot to pledge loyalty to the eventual GOP nominee.

    The decision by the party to retreat from that pledge — which members adopted in May — was not only a win for Trump’s campaign but a sign that DeSantis no longer enjoys an iron-clad grip over the state party. DeSantis supporters, including House Speaker Paul Renner, had urged the state GOP to keep the pledge intact.

    The last poll I saw had Trump beating DeSantis handily in the FL primary. His only hope is if Trump croaks. (Source: Politico)

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    My weekend sports-ball viewing schedule is a mess of dilemmas. Tonight the Rays are playing at the same time as the Gators. Tomorrow the Rays are playing at the same time as the Bucs. 

    They must be combined.  Infield baseball, outfield football.  It’s the only way.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    @sab:

    Why does Major League Baseball have opening day in the Midwest between opposing teams in the Midwest, where there will be a blizzard every year, when those early games could be scheduled somewhere in the South? 

    To make the game lively, or snowed out. 😁

  29. 29.

    lowtechcyclist

    @mrmoshpotato: Nah, just have two TVs, side by side.  Turn on the volume on whichever one you’re paying more attention to at a given moment, and turn off the sound on the other one. Swap back and forth as needed.

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Nah, just have two TVs, side by side.

    Old school!  (We actually did this for college football back in the 90’s.  Hooray for bunny ears!  (Not really, getting a decent picture was a pain.))

  34. 34.

    sab

    @Geminid: My husband, who adores her, is terrified.

    I think she might bloom. She is wildly creative, trapped in a lot of home responsibilities. Freed If she is safe in Richmond.

  35. 35.

    eclare

    Betty C, I think it was you who recommended Be My Guest.  I’m really enjoying it, with a touch of envy.  The “barn”, wow.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    @lowtechcyclist: For whatever reason, I can’t really watch two games at the same time. Last weekend we had baseball on TV and the football game on a laptop screen. It drove me crazy trying to watch both, so I committed to one and just glanced at the other occasionally to keep track of the score.

  39. 39.

    Mousebumples

    @sab: Of course they don’t. Why does Major League Baseball have opening day in the Midwest between opposing teams in the Midwest, where there will be a blizzard every year, when those early games could be scheduled somewhere in the South? Tis a puzzlement, but never guess good intentons.

    Hey, now, my midwest baseball team has a retractable roof. Great good cold days or otherwise inclement weather. Tailgating works fine in cold weather, though any precipitation makes it difficult to grill out.

    Go Brewers! Fear the 🍺!

    Eta – upside of having 2 simultaneous viewing options. If 1 is a blowout, you can flip to the other. Also, I have a Tivo box, so we’ll record stuff and start it late (and avoid social media) to skip commercials).

    I don’t think any of your teams are playing any of my teams this weekend, so I’ll just say good luck!

  42. 42.

    satby

    Morning all! Chugging coffee before I get ready to leave for the farmers market. In case anyone cares, I reopened my Etsy store for fall before I close it for realz in January.

    I’ll be witnessing sportsball in person tomorrow at a fundraiser for the foundation my cousins are establishing in memory of their late son, killed by a drunk driver two years ago. It’ll be at whatever they’re calling White Sox park these days. The last time I went to a game was probably 30 years ago.

  44. 44.

    Mousebumples

    @satby: In case anyone cares, I reopened my Etsy store for fall before I close it for realz in January.

    Oooh, thanks for the head’s up! I may need to super stock up then…. 🤔

    Hope the ballgame goes well, whatever that means your you. And may the honored person’s memory be a blessing.

  46. 46.

    Mousebumples

    @p.a.: Is picture-in-picture still a thing?

    I am not sure, but growing up (90s) my dad used to flip from football to random movie channel. So I’ve seen about half of various 80s/90s movies, lol. Just enough to be really confused about what the plot is, lol.

  48. 48.

    Geminid

    @sab: I would say that in general, Virginia is a good place to move to because the economy is more dynamic than in Ohio. This might explain why Virginia has trended blue in the last three decades while Ohio has moved the opposite way- but that’s another story.

    Your granddaughter will encounter plenty of people who are also from other states, and from other nations as well. The latter group makes for a very diverse influx of Yankees.

  49. 49.

    satby

    @Mousebumples: Oh, thank you! We’re rallying around my cousin, who’s not been able to deal with his beloved youngest son’s death well at all. He’s much younger than me and we’re hoping a foundation and an impending grandchild rekindles his interest in life. Otherwise we may lose him too.

    Beautiful dawn out there right now.

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby:

    It’ll be at whatever they’re calling White Sox park these days.

    Comiskey.

    Hope there’s a good turnout, and that your cousins are on the healing road.

  52. 52.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Maybe you could try listening to the Rays game on radio, and watch the Gators on TV with the sound off. If there is a good broadcast team, radio baseball can be very relaxing.

    I never get much value out of TV announcers for either sport- too frenetic.

  53. 53.

    Raven

    @sab: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabela Wilkerson might be a good read for you.

     

    “Let us not fool ourselves, we are far from the Promised Land, both north and south.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    The Warmth of Other Suns is a book that I think should be mandatory that every white person residing in the United States between the ages of 9 and 90 read. I don’t mean that in a harsh way. When one looks at the many accusations of racism as we approach the second decade of the twentieth century, it’s too easy for most white Americans to think that there isn’t a problem with racism in our country anymore, and the problems that we had were taken care of many years ago.”

  54. 54.

    Ocotillo

    I saw a tweet last night, speaking of Florida men who fancy themselves as president, of Suarez getting testy with a reporter who was asking about some uncomfortable subject.  I know he is out of the presidential horse race, any chance we can kick his kiester to the curb in the mayoral race?

  55. 55.

    Baud

    The results revealed two key findings. First, overconfidence tended to grow faster than knowledge, reaching its peak at intermediate levels of knowledge. Second, respondents with intermediate knowledge and high confidence also displayed the least positive attitudes towards science.

     

    According to André Mata, one of the authors of the study, “This combination of overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science is dangerous, as it can lead to the dissemination of false information and conspiracy theories, in both cases with great confidence.”

  57. 57.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker:  I sometimes walk by a relatively new house near me. It s built in such a way that you can see right into their living room. There are FOUR televisions on the wall. Last time I saw them, three were showing sports and one was showing something like CNBC. Or maybe i was just on a commercial. Who knows! Anyway, that’s an option for you!

  58. 58.

    kalakal

    @Betty Cracker:

    Cricket! That’s the answer. Easy to just catch up every 20 minutes* or so. 😄

    With cricket nothing happens for ages** then a lot happens really, really fast.

    It’s a great game to have in the background while you do something else and the radio commentary is it’s own sublime, surreal world

     

    * or day, full internationals last 5 days.

    ** not true of limited overs games

  59. 59.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Raven: ​

    The Warmth of Other Suns is a book that I think should be mandatory that every white person residing in the United States between the ages of 9 and 90 read.

    I enthusiastically second this! Just to give us white folks a sense of what life was like for Black folks on both ends of the Great Migration. Which helps one understand why race-related problems didn’t magically vanish once the civil-rights laws of the 1960s were passed.

    And she’s an excellent writer; it was easy to keep reading.

  61. 61.

    HeartlandLiberal

    I was a teenager in Birmingham, AL, at the time this happened.

    I highly recommend if anyone ever visits Bombingham (that is what was called then, because of the bombs being thrown in the upper class Black neighborhoods), that you visit the Civil Rights Museum, across the street west of Kelly Ingram Park. The church where the little girls died is directly northwest of the park, across an intersection. Make sure you walk the sidewalks in the park, there are statues of police dogs lunging at you from either side, in memory of the young people who protested at that time.

    The museum is one of the best I have ever visited, tying artifacts and multimedia together to successfully chronicle the Black experience in Birmingham since it was founded in 1871. It is laid out in a horseshoe shape, and one goes from earliest to present day. It has the front of the bus that was burned out in Anniston, threatening the lives of the Civil Rights riders.

  64. 64.

    Another Scott

    I heard parts of her remarks rebroadcast on C-Span radio last evening. She’s a powerful advocate and a credit to the SCOTUS and the USA. Video link (2:07:29).

    Doug Jones starts speaking around 1:19:00.

    CBJ starts speaking around 1:33:00.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  70. 70.

    Ksmiami

    @sab: it’s a completely different world in Northern VA – basically everything close to DC is modern, multiracial etc. Not sure about southern VA and places like Richmond. She will meet lots of educated. Interesting ppl.

  73. 73.

    Salty Sam .

    sab:  Maybe there should a place for jackals who crapped on people and later admit they wete wrong.

    @Baud:  www.balloon juice.com

    holy shit, I have been laughing for ten minutes straight…

  76. 76.

    sab

    @Raven: I am old. When I lived in the South in the 1950s and 1960s Black people were terrified of everyone white, even little kids like me. My caretakers were afraid of me and I knew it.

    It is different now

  79. 79.

    sab

    @Another Scott: Thank you so much for this.

    We know about hate groups in Ohio. Too many. Hate groups against Black peolpe are everywhere. So we wanted to know about hate groups that are huge and toxic. VA seems not so much.

    My grand-daughter is a sweet, kind, gentle loving and lovely person.

    The idea that there are people who want to hurt or kill her boggles my mind. Just shows I am white and naive in America.

  81. 81.

    Ksmiami

    @sab: I think racist people actually hate themselves as much as they hate their targets. Whole lotta self-loathing and rage among the MAGATs. Seriously.

  83. 83.

    Geminid

    @sab: Northern Virginia used to be very distinct politically from the rest of the state, but Virginia has become more culturally and politically homogeneous during this century.

    One example of this was seen in 2018. When Jennifer Wexton fliipped the Northern Virginia 10th CD, Abigail Spanberger flipped the Richmond area 7th CD and Elaine Luria flipped the Tidewater 2nd CD.

    That was an interesting year, in that Democrats flipped seats in just about every region of the country, and these were almost all suburban seats. There seems to be less political differences now between suburbs in states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan and states like Virginia, Georgia and Texas.

    Southside Virginia and Southwest Virginia are still pretty backwards, perhaps because they have not shared in Virginia’s economic boom. Richmond, though, is more like Northern Virginia and the Tidewater area. There are more jobs, more college educated people, and more immigrants from both other states and from other countries.

  84. 84.

    Geminid

    @Geminid:

     

    @sab: Another geographic/economic asset of Richmond is that it- or more precisely Petersburg 20 miles to the south- is the northern end of the I-85 corridor. I-85 runs to Atlanta, and passes through or next to economically dynamic cities like Durham, Greensboro, and Charlotte, North Carolina, and Spartanburg and Greeneville, South Carolina. I drive to Atlanta and much of my route takes me along I-85. I see new factories and such popping up everywhere along that route.

    With DC and the Northeastern corridor to the north up I-95, and the ports in Hampton roads to the east, down I-64, Richmond is well situated for sustained economic growth.

    Richmond’s passenger rail connections should improve this decade also.

  85. 85.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ksmiami:

    I think racist people actually hate themselves as much as they hate their targets.

    It’s a religious thing. “Hate Thy Neighbor as Thyself”.

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