(Todd A. Smith)
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and cum laude from Harvard Law School.
She served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Jackson served as a clerk for retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
Furthermore, she currently holds a job as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
With all those credentials, Fox News provocateur Tucker Carlson had the nerve to ask President Joe Biden to release Jackson’s Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) scores in advance of her confirmation hearings.
On Wednesday, Tucker said, “So, is Ketanji Brown Jackson—a name that even Joe Biden has trouble pronouncing—one of the top legal minds in the entire country? We certainly hope so. Biden’s right. Appointing her is one of the gravest constitutional duties. So it might be time for Joe Biden to let us know what Ketanji Brown Jackson’s LSAT score was.
“How did she do on the LSATs? Why couldn’t you tell us that? That would settle the question conclusively as to whether she’s a once-in-a-generation legal talent, the next Learned Hand. It would seem like Americans in a democracy have a right to know that and much more before giving her a lifetime appointment, but we didn’t hear that.”
How Jackson did on the LSAT, and undergrad mind you, can get summed up with her admission letter to Harvard’s law school.
Mind you, that Harvard is the crème de la crème of institutions of higher learning in this country.
Mind you, I cannot remember a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court ever having to release their law school entrance exam scores to the public during the nomination process.
But suddenly Tucker wants the first Black woman nominated for the Supreme Court to have to release hers.
And this dude gets mad, or at least appears surprised, when people actually call him racist.
That’s like Ted Bundy getting mad back in the day if people called him a killer.
That might be too far but who cares?
When a person says and does racist things like Carlson is constantly guilty of, that person should wear that scarlet letter “R” proudly.
To assume that a person with Jackson’s credentials does not have the qualifications to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court when her most current predecessor Justice Amy Coney Barrett had less impressive credentials, only leads to one assumption.
To her credit, Barrett is no slouch academically.
She graduated from Notre Dame University School of Law.
While Notre Dame is obviously a great school, it is not the Ivy League.
Nevertheless, I do not remember Carlson making negative assumptions about Barrett’s LSAT scores.
And no, people who assume do not always make a donkey out of themselves.
But in Carlson’s case, he is the ultimate donkey and one of the reasons why this country is so divided politically and racially.
But racism sells on television, I guess.
As a former law school student at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law, I have some credibility in discussing this issue.
People who read my articles, watch me on “Isiah Factor Uncensored” on Fox 26 Houston and Fox Soul, or spend a modicum of time around me often tell me I am intelligent.
While I truly do not feel that I am that intelligent as compared with other people, I realize that if people truly think I am intelligent then Jackson is a certified genius, just based on brain power.
First off, I did not do that well on my LSAT.
I could not have done great because I have removed the score from memory totally, having no recollection of my scores.
Nevertheless, my scores did not prove adequate to get into some second or third tier law schools like University of Houston and Loyola University in New Orleans.
I vaguely remembering applying to those schools.
But suffice it to say, I did not get in.
I also remember applying to what was then known as South Texas College of Law.
Again denied admission.
I applied at a couple of fourth tier law schools in Texas Southern University in Houston and Southern University in Baton Rouge, La, my alma mater.
Thankfully, I got into those two schools with a couple of stipulations.
I chose Texas Southern because I wanted to return to my hometown after four great years in Baton Rouge, La.
Unfortunately, the stipulations that allowed me to attend Texas Southern stipulated my behind right out of law school and I only completed my 1L year of law school.
While I do not believe my lack of success in law school had anything to do with brain power (I truly believe now that God had a calling on my life to do what I do in the media business), if people think my mediocre legal behind is so smart, how can anyone with a brain question someone with Jackson’s resume?
They cannot in good faith.
But bad faith actors in the media like Carlson know that there is a large segment of their fanbase that cannot fathom a Black person, and a Black woman more specifically, having the intelligence to sit on the highest court in the land.
And like it or not, people like Carlson are savvy enough to manipulate the hatred and ignorance of their fan base.
But what makes that business model so foul is that people like Carlson will sow division so much that it might have an impact on Jackson getting the job that she so richly deserves.
And she deserves a spot on the bench more than any other person in consideration for the job.
