LI civil rights leaders, aspiring lawyers take pride in Jackson confirmation
Second-year Hofstra Law School student Deandra Denton watched with a deeply felt sense of pride as Thursday's historic vote confirming Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court progressed.
For the first time in her 23 years, Denton, of Hempstead, would see a woman who looked like her and shared some of her life experiences ascend to the highest court in the land.
"This is a really proud moment. A really exciting moment," Denton said. "As a Black woman and a future attorney, to see Ketanji Brown Jackson rise to this level and be the first Black woman to be on the Supreme Court, it's really impactful … It just brings me a lot of joy."
Across Long Island, members of the legal community and area civil rights leaders celebrated Thursday's 53-47 bipartisan vote shattering one of the court's few remaining glass ceilings and securing Jackson's place as the first Black female justice in the 233-year history of the court.
Jackson, 51, an appeals court judge with nine years' experience on the federal bench, was confirmed largely along party lines with all 50 Democrats voting in favor of her nomination along with three Republicans.
Tracey Edwards, director of the Long Island NAACP, was reflective in the hours before the afternoon vote. She thought about her 93-year-old mother, daughter and two granddaughters, ages 2 and 10, four generations of Black women who would revel in Jackson's inclusion in America's judicial halls of power.
"This is something everyone can celebrate," Edwards said. "Of course it is of particular significance for women and African American women. But this is something the whole country should be able to celebrate when we have evidence of continued progress."
While the appointment of Jackson, who will replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer over the summer, will not change the composition of the 6-3 conservative dominated court, it's consequence cannot be understated, said Hempstead civil rights attorney Frederick Brewington.
"Historic is an understatement," Brewington said of the vote. "This is a monumental. The appointment of a scholar and an extremely talented jurist is a place that our country should have been at long ago. However, this is an opportunity for us to start making sure that firsts don't continually get passed over."
Jackson will be just the third Black Supreme Court justice — following Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas — and the sixth woman, including three current justices: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett.
Legal scholars note that Jackson's education and professional background are mostly traditional. She attended Harvard University, worked at a private law firm and served as a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
But Julian Ku, a constitutional law professor at Hofstra, points out that it's Jackson's time as a public defender that separates her from the current crop of justices, many of whom worked as prosecutors.
"She'll have a much deeper experience in thinking about criminal law issues from the perspective of the defendant than the other justices," Ku said of Jackson. "It shouldn't matter, but sometimes you look at cases and make assumptions about how the law works and you see it from the perspective of one side or another. It's hard to get past your own professional background. It tends to color how you frame problems … Someone thinking about this from the terms of the criminal defendant will have a richer perspective."
Jackson's confirmation, and its historic significance, could reverberate for generations to come, said Elaine Gross, president of Erase Racism, a civil rights organization based in Syosset.
Young Black children, aspiring attorneys and even minority lawyers already on the job, now have a role model — one whose appearance, background and life story more closely resemble their own than any previous justice, she said.
"It is always difficult, whether they're adults or children, to imagine themselves in certain positions if they never see anyone that looks like them in those positions," Gross said. "Not only will [Jackson] do a phenomenal job, just based on everything we've seen, but she will be inspiring to Black women and Black girls everywhere. And I don't think we can minimize that. It does help move African Americans forward if they're thinking about what they might be able to achieve."
Denton, the Hofstra Law student, said Thursday vote was "deeply personal" — a moment when barriers were forever shattered and the highest level of success suddenly appears possible.
"Representation matters, no matter the profession," she said. "And to see someone who looks like you in that field and excel in that field is very impactful … For people who want to be jurists, seeing Judge Jackson on the Supreme Court shows them they can do it too. Nothing is impossible."
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
