Ketanji Brown Jackson Makes History as First Black Woman Confirmed to Supreme Court

This clip is from the April 8, 2022 broadcast.

The U.S. Senate voted 53-47 on Thursday to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. She will be the first Black woman and first former public defender to serve on the country’s top court. While Jackson’s confirmation was a "monumental moment in United States history" it was undercut by the "shameful spectacle" of Republican senators behaving disrespectfully toward Jackson, says law professor Michele Goodwin. The confirmation process remains broken more than three decades after Anita Hill faced hostile questioning, she adds.

Goodwin also speaks about the anti-abortion legislation sweeping the U.S., including in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. She draws links between current conflicts across state and federal law and their historic precedents, such as Brown v. Board of Education and the Fugitive Slave Acts. "Bounty hunter" provisions in Texas's new abortion restrictions are "plucked right out of antebellum slavery," says Goodwin. "These are horrific times for reproductive liberty."