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COMMENTARY: The Potential Power of our New Supreme Court Justice  

Eventually, Marshall and others would help convince the court to embrace Harlan’s view that “in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior dominant, ruling class of citizens…In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.” It is true that the Supreme Court’s right-wing justices will still have a 6-3 majority after our new Justice joins the Court. But numbers don’t tell the story. Her presence is not the only way she can and will make history.   

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Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way.
Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice in the Africana Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania where he teaches leadership.

By Ben Jealous

President Joe Biden is about to name the first Black woman ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court — in fact, he may have already done so by the time you read this.

Based on the Black women Biden has chosen to serve as federal judges, we know that the nominee will be brilliant. And we know she will be committed to a “justice for all” approach to the Constitution.

That commitment is supremely important to Americans right now. The court is currently controlled by a right-wing majority. They are overturning earlier rulings in order to elevate “states’ rights” over voting rights.

They are using distorted interpretations of the First Amendment to sacrifice equality and opportunity. They are giving corporations greater power over our lives and giving the government less authority to protect us from corporate wrongdoing.

The damage being done by the Supreme Court and its three Trump-appointed justices is a brutal reminder that elections matter — and that judges continue to affect our lives long after the president who nominated them is gone.

The Trump majority also means that our new justice, whoever she is, is likely to spend a good chunk of time in the Court’s minority. She will be on the “losing” side of important decisions. But that doesn’t mean she is powerless. This nominee, like every Supreme Court nominee, is vitally important to our future.

Supreme Court justices who are not in the majority influence the Court in a number of ways. In the short term, they can influence their fellow justices with the power of their arguments.

In some cases, they can try to lessen the damage caused by a bad decision by agreeing to support a more limited and less harmful ruling than the majority would reach on its own.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recognized that, once saying, “At oral arguments and conference meetings, in opinions and dissents, Justice (Thurgood) Marshall imparted not only his legal acumen but also his life experiences, constantly pushing and prodding us to respond not only to the persuasiveness of legal argument but also to the power of moral truth.”

History tells us that the most important power of a justice in the minority may be their ability to use dissenting opinions to shape public opinion, move Congress to action, or provide a road map for future courts to reverse bad rulings.

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg knew how to use this power.

In 2007, the Court’s conservatives ruled against a woman who had been paid less than her male coworkers for 20 years. The indefensible ruling distorted and gutted the law protecting women against discrimination on the job.

Ginsburg’s dissent made the injustice clear. And she declared that “the ball is in Congress’ court.” Congress accepted their responsibility to restore the protections; it was the first bill signed into law by President Obama.

Ginsburg wasn’t quite as successful with her dissent to the 2013 decision in which the Court’s right-wing majority ravaged the Voting Rights Act. Legislation to restore the protection of the Voting Rights Act has been repeatedly blocked in Congress. But the power of Ginsburg’s ideas persists.

Her dissent included a description of what the court majority was doing that you didn’t need to be a lawyer to understand. Weakening the enforcement of voting rights laws because they were working to prevent discrimination was “like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet,” she said.

Dissents like that can help people understand what’s at stake. And they can inspire activists and attorneys to build on those ideas and work toward the day when they are embraced by a majority of the Court.

Before Thurgood Marshall became a Supreme Court justice, he was a civil rights lawyer challenging desegregation. When he was feeling discouraged, he would re-read Justice John Marshall Harlan’s dissent in the 1896 ruling that approved “separate but equal” public schools.

Eventually, Marshall and others would help convince the court to embrace Harlan’s view that “in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior dominant, ruling class of citizens…In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.”

It is true that the Supreme Court’s right-wing justices will still have a 6-3 majority after our new Justice joins the Court. But numbers don’t tell the story. Her presence is not the only way she can and will make history.

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice in the Africana Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania where he teaches leadership.

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Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023

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March 17, 2023

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 15 - 21, 2023

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Richmond Promise Scholarship Application Deadline Closes March 17

Qualifying applicants can receive up to $1,500 annually for four years toward their post-secondary educational goals at a two-year or four-year college and/or while pursuing a Career Technical Education Certificate at any not-for-profit institution in the U.S. 

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March 15, 2023

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Scholarships are available for high school graduates who want to go to a two-year or four-year college or a nonprofit vocational/technical school. Photo courtesy of Richmond Promise.
Scholarships are available for high school graduates who want to go to a two-year or four-year college or a nonprofit vocational/technical school. Photo courtesy of Richmond Promise.

Calling all high school seniors from Richmond and North Richmond: The Richmond Promise Scholarship Application period for the 2022-2023 school year closes on Friday, March 17.

High school seniors and GED students under the age of 24 who reside in Richmond and North Richmond and attend public, private, or charter schools in West Contra Costa County are eligible to apply for the scholarship.

Qualifying applicants can receive up to $1,500 annually for four years toward their post-secondary educational goals at a two-year or four-year college and/or while pursuing a Career Technical Education Certificate at any not-for-profit institution in the U.S. 

Students can also petition for an additional two years of extra funding. Throughout the process, the program provides supportive services to participating scholars from high school through college graduation, including support with identifying and applying for financial aid.

Richmond Promise launched in 2016 with a $35 million, 10-year investment by Chevron Richmond. The funds are part of a $90 million community benefits agreement between the City of Richmond and Chevron connected to the $1 billion Refinery Modernization Project.

To apply for the Richmond Promise Scholarship, go to https://richmondpromise.tfaforms.net/81. Need some help? Reach out to Richmond Promise at scholarships@richmondpromise.org. Learn more about the organization https://richmondpromise.org/

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report

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Bay Area Native Dr. Terri Jett Honored by Indiana’s Butler University

Terri Jett arrived at Butler University in 1999 to begin her teaching career as an assistant professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies after earning her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University. Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.

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March 14, 2023

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Dr. Terri Jett poses with Butler Blue, the mascot of Butler University. Photo courtesy of Butler University Stories.
Dr. Terri Jett poses with Butler Blue, the mascot of Butler University. Photo courtesy of Butler University Stories.

By Jennifer Gunnels
Butler University Stories

Bay Area native Terri Jett was received a Distinguished Faculty Award at Indiana’s Butler University.

Terri Jett arrived at Butler University in 1999 to begin her teaching career as an assistant professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies after earning her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University.

Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.

More than 20 years later, Jett has excelled at the work she set out to do. Last year, she was named a 2021-22 Distinguished Faculty Award recipient for her profound contributions to Butler University over the course of her career.

In many ways, Jett has been a trailblazer at Butler, including becoming the first Black female to earn tenure, and in 2020 becoming the first Black female to be promoted to full professor. Along with her teaching responsibilities as a member of the faculty, Jett has taken on numerous additional roles over the years including faculty director of the Hub for Black Affairs and Community Engagement (the Hub), member of the Steering Committee of the Race, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program (RGSS), faculty senator, and Faculty Fellow at the Desmond Tutu Peace Lab Think Tank. She also served as Department Chair from 2007-2014, a role she has currently resumed as interim while the current Chair is on sabbatical.

Jett has developed almost two dozen courses — core, departmental, honors, and even taught in our Washington D.C. Semester Program — and is always eager to seize on opportunities to take her students beyond the borders of campus. She has led students on numerous occasions to Selma, Alabama with the Honors course Voting Rights in Black and White: The Case of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. She says walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge is always a moving and eye-opening experience for her students that brings the Civil Rights Movement to life in new ways.

Of the many courses she has taught, Jett says one of her favorites to teach is the Politics of Alice Walker, which she teaches nearly every summer. Prior to the pandemic, Jett also offered the course several times at the Indiana Women’s Prison and was able to bring some of her Butler students to visit her class in prison.

Jett is committed to doing good things in the world herself and is known in the Indianapolis community for her service and activism. She currently serves on the board of Indiana Humanities and is appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett to the Indianapolis Land Improvement Bond Bank Board. She also moderates a series on local PBS station WFYI called Simple Civics, which provides short civics lessons and was nominated for a Great Lakes Region Emmy in 2020 and again in 2021.

Jett says her community activism is inspired in part by a desire to demonstrate how to be an engaged citizen for her students as well as a desire to connect her teaching and research to issues happening within the community.

“And I do it because it’s fulfilling,” she said.

Though Jett has various roles within and outside of Butler, she finds satisfaction in discovering ways to integrate her teaching, research, and service. For instance, her research focuses on agriculture and food justice, and last year she leveraged her area of academic expertise and her role as Faculty Director of the Hub to partner with Indy Women in Food in hosting the organization’s first conference on Butler’s campus focused on food insecurity in the city.

“I’m thrilled when I’m able to do that,” Jett said. “All of the hats that I wear are sort of constantly engaged at the same time, and I like that I get to work like that. I’m not running from one thing to the next, I feel like my work is layered with multiple connection points.”

This article is part of a series honoring the 2021-22 recipients of the Butler University Distinguished Faculty Award. Printed with permission.

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