(RightWing.org) – When Supreme Court Justices are appointed to the bench, it’s with the expectation that they will make decisions based on the law, not on their own personal politics. However, there’s been some concern about that happening. Most recently, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was in the spotlight for her comments on race.
Affirmative Action Decision
At the end of June, the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in two prominent cases that came before it: Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the latter — Jackson recused herself from the former because of a conflict of interest.
However, her recusal didn’t stop Jackson from issuing a dissenting opinion on both cases. In it, she outlined why it’s important to have “diversity” in schools and included a statement that had no factual evidence to back it up. “For high-risk Black newborns, having a Black physician more than doubles the likelihood that the baby will live,” she said, citing a study from 2020. When digging into the details of that study, however, there are no such claims, a fact that Ted Frank pointed out in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed.
Second Mistake
Justice Jackson’s mistakes don’t end there, according to an opinion piece by Jay Greene, published by Fox News. In the same dissent, the SCOTUS justice wrote: “Research shows that Black physicians are more likely to accurately assess Black patients’ pain tolerance and treat them accordingly.” In order to cite this, she pointed to the same source she cited for her original statement.
According to Greene, nowhere in the amicus by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) does the organization look at “the efficacy of doctors of different races.” He accuses the AAMC, which he refers to as a “radicalized organization,” of misinterpreting research and suggests it makes up the data it needs to support its points.
Going even further, Greene talks about the AAMC’s penchant for hiring and promoting staff based on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) metrics and lobbying for more of the same.
Race Has Consistently Been a Factor
In her decisions, Jackson has used race as a factor in making statements. For example, in October 2022, she brought the issue of race to the forefront when discussing electoral maps. Rather than adhere to the belief that the US Constitution is “color-blind,” she said the document’s framers adopted several amendments and the equal protection clause with skin color in mind. Some have suggested her ongoing points are perpetuating reverse racism.
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