Civil rights activist Maya Wiley said Monday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that she believes Republican senators who voted against confirming judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court sent a message to black people that it did not matter “what you do, you will not be good enough.”
Host Joy Reid said, “Long term, do you foresee any of these men regretting having landed in the history books on the wrong side of history saying, ‘We will deny this black woman. We don’t want this black woman on the court. We don’t have a reason for it.’ She has the same lack of judicial philosophy John Roberts testified to when he was running. He said I don’t have a judicial philosophy. They didn’t have a problem with that. Do you think ultimately, in the history books, do you think they’ll care they come down on the Dixiecrat side of history here?”
Wiley said, “I will say this. I certainly hope so. I certainly hope they understand, as people elected to the Senate who went and took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and frankly stand up and serve this democracy, that they understand exactly what happened here was not only the attack on a black woman qualified for this job, sending a message by the way to black people across this country that it doesn’t matter what you do. That was the message. It doesn’t matter what you do. You will not be good enough. Wrong message for pluralist democracy, but they also sent the message that said anybody who has an interest in rising in your profession and in your career on the Federal bench, you better meet our ideological litmus test. It is not something that’s okay. The third branch of government, the federal judiciary, is supposed to be an independent one. They attacked that today.”
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