SCOTUS Nominee – Judge with ‘Personal Hidden Legend’

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I believe Ketanji Brown Jackson wasn’t expecting a nomination to the Supreme Court, at least this early in her legal career, but life is funny like that.

Now as a Supreme Court Judiciary candidate, Jackson’s 1992 Harvard University thesis is being used to examine her. In it, Jackson argued that court officials, including judges, had “Personal Hidden Agenda”

Jackson’s Thesis, “‘Hand of Repression’: The Criminal Conviction and Coercion Negotiation Processes,” Discuss that the defendants are sometimes “forced to give up their constitutional rights as a precondition for consideration of sentencing“Through the use of bargains.

GOP Senators on the judiciary committee are using her own words when questioning the judge about her reported leniency to crime as a federal district court judge state.

Jackson wrote:

It is likely that the very institution designed to adjudicate justice and protect individual rights may be most guilty of creating injustices in its attempt to make criminal justice more economical and efficient. . This thesis will examine plea negotiations in modern criminal courts in the United States, and will argue that, when they are at work, plea bargaining processes are both coercive and non-binding. Acceptable.

In his argument, the DC Court of Appeals judge argued that motives should be considered, or “hidden agenda,” that underpins the efforts “Require defendants to waive their constitutional rights” through begging and bargaining.

Jackson wrote, “We must attempt to identify ‘individual decision-makers’ motivations for delegating’ as both a support for the assertion that the process is stressful (Chapter Two), and a precondition for argues that the pressures themselves are unacceptable coercion. (Chapters Five and Six). ”

She went on to state that court actors, including judges, have “Personal motives … Because of wanting to solve cases by negotiating and acting on that desire. ” She claims that court officials, including judges, have “Personal Hidden Agenda:”

Maybe “[t]those who run the criminal justice process and the decisions they make are more likely to serve their interests than the customers of the system. In such a powerful and influential social institution, legal concepts and ideology are likely to be manipulated by individuals for personal gain.

And although “people can justify [actions] in the name of the collective good, “they may actually be trying to” disguise[e] a vested interest. “Before we can analyze the effectiveness of plea bargaining, we must attempt to determine Personal hidden agenda of various court experts.

Jackson’s argument that court officials have a “personal hidden agenda” regarding plea deals raises questions about her time as a federal court judge, as Many Republicans have accused her of being soft on crime.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) speak Jackson is very tolerant of crime during the coronavirus pandemic. She alleges that Jackson is somewhat resistant to criminals and terrorists:

At the beginning of the pandemic, you supported, and I quote again, because “each and every defendant convicted of a crime in the DC Department of Corrections should be released.” That will be 1500 criminals back on the street if you have your way. And you’ve used the COVID-19 pandemic to justify the release of a fentanyl dealer, a heroin-addicted bank robber and a criminal who murdered a US Marshal into our community. But your efforts to protect convicts began before the pandemic. You have used your time and talents, not to serve our nation’s veterans or other vulnerable groups, but to provide free legal services to help those in need. Terrorist escape from Gitmo and return to the war.

So far, Democrats on the committee and Jackson himself have tried to downplay the arguments of GOP Senators like Blackburn, Lee, Kennedy, Cotton, and Cruz.

In Tuesday’s testimony, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said that she “not sure” if Critical race theory (CRT) is teaching at Georgetown Day School, an elite private school in Washington, DC, where she serves on the board of trustees.

While asking Jackson, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he found it “a bit difficult to reconcile” Jackson’s previous comments about CRT and her serving on the board of a school promoting the concept.

Jackson said the board did not control the curriculum and she was unaware of the theory taught there.

“I don’t know, because the board isn’t the board that doesn’t control the curriculum,” she said. “The board is not focused on that. That’s not what we do as board members. So I’m really not sure”.