U.S. Supreme Court nominee Jackson a tough sell on racial-bias claims
Send a link to a friend
[March 17, 2022]
By Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Park Police
officer said he was demoted and then fired by the agency because he is
Black. A Bureau of Land Management employee accused managers at the
agency of hostile treatment because she is Black. A pharmacist at a
Washington hospital claimed he was dismissed from his job because he is
Black.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's nominee to become the first
Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, presided as a federal
trial court judge in all three of these cases involving claims of racial
discrimination. She ruled against all three plaintiffs.
During Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings last year after
Biden nominated her to a federal appellate court, Jackson faced
Republican questions about whether race plays a role in how she does her
job as a judge. She said it does not, though the issue could arise again
during her four-day confirmation hearing before the committee beginning
on Monday.
Reuters reviewed 25 cases in which Jackson issued substantive rulings as
a U.S. district court judge in Washington from 2013 to 2021 involving
plaintiffs who made claims of racial discrimination, most involving the
workplace. She ruled in favor of plaintiffs in only three of the cases.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/17/images/ads/current/castlemanor_sda_FINANCIAL_2017.png)
Of the 25 cases, 22 were pursued by Black plaintiffs. Jackson ruled
against 19 of the Black plaintiffs.
"Plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases lose a lot, so this
strikes me as consistent with the pattern I would expect because they
are notoriously hard to win," said employment law expert Kim Forde-Mazrui,
director of the University of Virginia School of Law's Center for the
Study of Race and Law.
In two of the three cases that did not involve Black plaintiffs, Jackson
ruled against a white man and an Asian man claiming workplace racial
discrimination.
In the third case, she rejected a challenge by a company that bids on
military contracts to the constitutionality of a U.S. law that gives
preference for awarding government contracts to small businesses owned
by "socially disadvantaged individuals," a category that includes racial
minorities.
In one case, Jackson declined to certify racial discrimination claims
brought by two Black workers against defense contractor Lockheed Martin
Corp as a class action that would have involved potentially more than
5,000 employees. Jackson also rejected a $22 million settlement fund
that the workers had negotiated with Lockheed, saying it was unclear if
the amount was fair to workers who were not involved in the litigation.
The case was eventually settled in 2020.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/17/images/ads/current/graue_sda_042021.png)
[to top of second column]
|
![](news_h85.jpg)
U.S. Supreme Court nominee and federal appeals court Judge Ketanji
Brown Jackson meets with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in his office
on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 2, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan
Ernst/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/17/images/ads/current/christianchurch_lda_PRESCHOOL_2022.png) "If people are afraid she is going
to be siding with Black plaintiffs because of her race, there are
plenty of cases in her record that show she is not unwilling to side
against a Black plaintiff if the facts and the law require it," said
Aron Zavaro, an employment lawyer in the Washington area who has
represented plaintiffs in cases against government agencies.
Zavaro said Jackson's rulings show that she
followed Supreme Court precedent in how to analyze cases brought
under the federal law that prohibits employment discrimination, a
claim that can be difficult to prove because plaintiffs rarely have
direct evidence of bias.
AN EVENLY DIVIDED SENATE
Under the U.S. Constitution, the Senate is given the job of
confirming a president's judicial nominees. A simple majority vote
would be needed for Jackson's confirmation to a lifetime post on
America's top judicial body, replacing the retiring liberal Justice
Stephen Breyer.
The Senate is divided 50-50 between the two parties, with Biden's
fellow Democrats controlling it because Vice President Kamala Harris
can cast a tie-breaking vote.
The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority, including three
justices appointed by Biden's Republican predecessor Donald Trump,
has flexed its muscles by taking up cases that could curb abortion
rights, expand gun rights and end affirmative action policies used
by universities to increase Black and Hispanic student admissions.
Biden's nomination of Jackson fulfilled his 2020 campaign promise to
name the nation's first Black woman justice - a "long overdue"
milestone, he said - though some Republicans accused him of
discriminating against men and non-Black women by refusing to
consider any of them for the job.
During an April 2021 confirmation hearing after Biden nominated her
to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,
some Republican senators confronted Jackson on race including
whether she considers the U.S. justice system racist.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/17/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png)
Republican Senator John Cornyn asked her: "What role does race play
in the kind of judge you have been and the kind of judge you will
be?"
"I don't think race plays a role in the kind of judge I have been
and would be," Jackson replied, adding that race "would be
inappropriate to inject" into her consideration of a case.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will
Dunham and Scott Malone)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |