It took one look for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to put Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) firmly in his place.
After answering questions for hours from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, the Supreme Court nominee gave a withering look to Cruz when he sought to cast doubt on her membership on the board of a liberal private school that proudly promotes “social justice.”
The conservative senator tried to paint fellow Harvard Law alum, Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as a proponent of so-called critical race theory because Georgetown Day School had placed books including “How To Be an Anti-Racist” in its curriculum.
Jackson, who would become the first Black woman to ever serve on the nation’s top court, took a long measured pause before answering.
“Senator, I do not believe that any child should be made to think that any child is racist or less than,” Jackson said.
The poised jurist looked incredulously over her glasses as Cruz claimed that another book was inappropriate for recommended summer reading because it suggested that America is not a color-blind society.
“This book says the exact opposite of what Dr. King spoke about,” blustered Cruz. “Are you comfortable with these ideas being taught to children?”
Jackson wasted little time shutting down his argument, which echoes GOP campaign complaints against white kids being taught about the history of racism.
“Senator, I have not reviewed any of those books,” she said matter-of-factly. “They don’t come up in my work as a judge, which respectfully, I am here to address.”
Cruz quickly backed down, returning to other lines of attack, like criticism that she gave sentences that were too lenient to sex offenders.