LAWMAKERS PRESS FOR SECOND BLACK JUSTICE
| Posted: 05/07/09 05:57 PM [ET] | |
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The Congressional Black Caucus is launching a campaign to persuade President Obama to appoint one of their members to the Supreme Court seat that will be vacated by Justice David Souter.
They are pressing the merits of Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who would increase the number of African- Americans on the court to two. At present, Justice Clarence Thomas is the only African-American on the court. Members of the black caucus say Scott, who is also a member of the House Judiciary Committee, was discussed as being a well-qualified possibility during their caucus’s Wednesday afternoon meeting.
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said he would recommend Scott to Obama, and expects to do so. Obama consulted with Conyers before he launched his presidential bid, and Conyers was one of the first lawmakers to endorse him.
Though Scott, 62, is not a judge, he is widely respected in the field of constitutional law, Conyers said.
“He does a brilliant job on the committee separating out constitutional questions,” Conyers added.
Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said that CBC members Wednesday discussed that “we need to be actively involved” in the process of selecting a new justice in the wake of Souter’s retirement, and also discussed that Scott “is someone everyone believes in.”
“He has that much-talked-about judicial temperament and he would be able to serve with distinction for a long time,” Cleaver said. “I hope it is something that advisers to the president would take seriously.”
Scott got his undergraduate degree at Harvard and his law degree from Boston College in 1973 and returned to his home of Newport News to practice law. He practiced until he ran for Congress and won in 1992.
He is known as an ardent civil libertarian, having opposed the Patriot Act and efforts to allow states to display the Ten Commandments in schools or government buildings. He was one of three members to oppose condemnation of a federal court decision declaring unconstitutional the words “One Nation Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
A call to Scott’s office for comment was not returned.
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Okay. . . .so, you get this Black justice on the Supreme Court. Then what? What are the chances that he (or she) will not be a turn coat against the United States Constitution? What are the chances that this justice will not rip apart and gut the rights that citizens have, rights which have been chipped away at by the savagery of the SCOTUS? (And I do not count Clarence Thomas as a Black Supreme Court Justice. As far as I am concerned, he is a Justice Taney in blackface.)
Too many so-called justices on the SCOTUS have trampled on the law. To the CBC, be careful in whom you consider and advocate to President Obama. This country does not need anymore justices who pervert and subvert the laws that were enacted to protect citizens against subjugation, no matter how liberal or conservative the prospective justice may be.
And what if Obama chickens out and selects a non-Black candidate, even when there are well qualified Blacks (especally Black women) who are capable and prepared to head a position of the highest court in the land?
Don’t be surprised if Obama follows the status quo and does not put forward the names of any qualified Black candidates.
If he does it will shock the hell out of me.
He hasn’t stood strong against the continued racism in America, so pray tell, why should he be any different on the nomination process for a Supreme Court Justice?
Why should he give a damn about the many qualified Blacks who can (and will be) overlooked by him and the U.S. Senate on the selection of a new justice?
In the end, Obama will be no different from all of his predecessors———a groveling, cowering lackey of all that is wrong with this country.
Ann
BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS 