Reflective Democracy

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s swearing-in to the United States Supreme Court represents a watershed moment in our nation’s history. The eminently qualified jurist brings new perspectives as the first former public defender, first former member of the United States Sentencing Commission, and the first Black woman to serve on the High Court since its initial assembly in 1790. Her extensive professional experience in private practice and the federal bench as a trial judge and an appellate judge, and the lived experience she shared at her confirmation hearings, will broaden the perspective of a Court that will now better reflect the diversity and experiences of all Americans.

Today’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade threatens the fundamental rights of every American. The ruling is the culmination of a decades-long strategy to take the Constitution, our Court, and our country backwards on issues of reproductive freedom, and it has profound implications for every other right that could be next on the chopping block. The ruling also exposes the disingenuous sworn testimony of conservative justices during their Senate confirmation hearings when they assured Senators that Roe was established precedent, leaving unsaid their agenda to reverse it.  

Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a voting rights and good governance advocacy group, also criticized the new map, arguing in a statement that it “divides communities of interest and neighborhoods, particularly in New York City, and ignores the cores of the existing Congressional districts.”