Confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court

Title: Confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court
Date: April 8, 2022
Description:  On April 8, 2022, Tanya Walker joined Metro Morning with Ismaila Alfa on CBC Radio to discuss the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court

Transcript

0:08

a history has been made this week

0:10

katanji brown jackson was confirmed as a

0:12

u.s supreme court justice making her the

0:14

first black woman to reach the country’s

0:16

top court it was a meaningful moment for

0:18

my next guest tanya walker is a lawyer

0:20

and managing director of walker law in

0:22

toronto good morning

0:25

good morning

0:26

so what what does it mean to you

0:28

watching as katanji brown jackson

0:30

ultimately was confirmed to the supreme

0:32

court

0:33

well thank you for having me and what it

0:34

means to me is it’s just exciting

0:37

um it moves me to

0:40

even just feel a little emotional

0:41

because it just even though judges are

0:44

impartial

0:45

this uh

0:47

nomination this appointment reflects the

0:49

diversity of the united states and our

0:51

diversity in our country is very similar

0:54

and it just acknowledges that if you can

0:56

work hard um change can happen um and if

1:00

you see something then you might believe

1:02

that something that you can do in the

1:03

future so i’m really really excited to

1:06

see

1:06

um that this change has happened if you

1:09

can work hard then change can happen um

1:12

added to that for many many decades has

1:14

been that you need to work harder than

1:17

others to reach those heights what does

1:18

it say about that

1:20

i i actually agree with you so

1:23

being a black woman i that’s what i was

1:25

taught by my parents and that’s what i

1:27

do and um sometimes you do need a little

1:30

to work a little bit harder to

1:31

demonstrate um to those who may not

1:34

believe that you should be there that

1:35

you should be

1:36

so

1:37

i but

1:38

the the key phrase here is work hard

1:40

and um sometimes uh in the past even if

1:43

you did work hard change wouldn’t be

1:45

achieved and that’s what i like to see

1:47

now is that if you work hard or even

1:49

harder change can can be a change i

1:51

can’t imagine or i can imagine actually

1:53

what type of uh inspiration this will be

1:56

for young black women and young black

1:59

girls around the world in fact but but i

2:01

i wonder for you when you were younger

2:04

who were the black female lawyers that

2:06

you looked up to well i the black female

2:10

lawyer that i looked up to that actually

2:11

made me decide to become a lawyer when i

2:13

was a little girl maybe around four or

2:15

five years old and i’m really dating

2:17

myself her name is claire huxtable from

2:19

the cosby show i’m not sure if you’re

2:20

familiar with that show of course so i

2:22

saw her as a little girl and i didn’t

2:24

even understand what lawyering meant and

2:25

i was like i want to be her

2:28

and so my parents said well you’re

2:30

argumentative so that you might you know

2:31

that’s one check

2:33

but you have to work very very hard to

2:36

get into a good school and to

2:39

follow through with law school and it’s

2:41

something you can do my parents never

2:42

said no to me so i think it’s a

2:44

combination of seeing someone even if it

2:46

was an actress

2:48

that i saw myself in her at such a young

2:50

age along with having so much support

2:53

that convinced me that i this is

2:54

something i could do i don’t know if i

2:57

necessarily would have had the same kind

2:59

of uh conclusion had it not been seeing

3:01

someone in that role now in canada the

3:04

first judge of color was uh just named

3:06

to the federal supreme court last june

3:08

the honorable mahmoud jamal

3:11

there’s not been a woman of color on our

3:13

top court as of yet i mean this this

3:15

confirmation is an american confirmation

3:17

but how do you see it influencing canada

3:19

well as you said as of yet so there

3:22

there is always time to for change to

3:24

come and i and i hope it does come with

3:27

someone who is uh appointed who really

3:31

everyone believes should be there i i

3:32

don’t want anyone to think someone’s

3:34

there because of like a diversity kind

3:36

of higher um but there is there is time

3:39

for change and and hopefully that’s

3:41

something that i’ll see in my lifetime

3:43

is that uh a female judge in the supreme

3:46

court who is of color um

3:50

will be appointed

3:51

you you point out that i hope nobody’s

3:53

there because of this this this phrase

3:55

um a diversity higher you know that in

3:58

reaction to um judge brown jackson being

4:01

confirmed there are people in the u.s

4:03

who are are

4:05

you know pushing back saying that

4:07

president biden had stated he was going

4:10

to find a black woman for this position

4:12

and that others weren’t considered

4:13

essentially referring to her as a

4:15

diversity hire what’s your action to

4:17

that

4:18

i

4:19

i don’t um

4:21

i understand where he’s coming from

4:24

um and i think he’s just trying to

4:26

stress the importance of having

4:27

diversity on the bench in that in the

4:29

highest level court of the united states

4:32

i don’t know if people would have

4:33

reacted the same way if he just didn’t

4:35

say that and just said you know what i

4:37

found the best person for the job and

4:40

that person just happens to be a black

4:41

woman so

4:43

um i i might have approached a little

4:46

bit differently but i’m just little

4:47

tanya walker i’m not the president of

4:49

the united states i think there’s a fair

4:50

point i mean the idea that that the

4:52

action should be the statement no no

4:53

need necessarily for a verbal statement

4:56

exactly you see what you see i was the

4:57

first black female bencher elected with

4:59

our law society from toronto

5:01

and i didn’t i when i ran in 2016 and

5:05

2019 i didn’t lead with that people

5:07

could just see this is what i look like

5:09

right so um and i am i appreciate that

5:12

only lawyers can vote for me and i got

5:14

in twice and um i appreciate having

5:17

their support so i i prefer to lead with

5:19

um you know skill and intellect and hard

5:22

work and then people can see what they

5:23

can see now i know that your first

5:25

inspiration was claire huxtable but but

5:27

you know getting a little older what

5:28

would a moment like this have meant to

5:30

you to see an actual lawyer in real life

5:33

being uh confirmed into this position

5:36

i think that it would have convinced me

5:38

as a little girl that um you don’t just

5:41

uh have to practice law there are other

5:44

areas of law that you can pursue such as

5:46

the supreme court um i think that’s

5:48

something that i might have considered

5:50

when i was a little girl even just

5:52

growing up but because i didn’t see

5:54

someone in that role that looked like me

5:56

i didn’t ever consider it so i do hope

5:59

that the younger generation it will open

6:01

their eyes to see um that

6:04

you could pursue you could pursue law um

6:07

and you can be in private practice work

6:09

for the government or you can be a judge

6:10

of the supreme court whether it’s canada

6:12

or united states always agree to

6:14

celebrate the first but always even

6:16

better to move on uh to the point where

6:19

there’s no need to celebrate first

6:20

because it’s just part of life um tanya

6:23

thanks for being here this morning

6:25

thank you for having me have a great day

6:26

you too

6:27

tanya walker is a lawyer and managing

6:29

director of walker law in toronto

6:33

yes

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