Fogbow

Sen John Kennedy went viral on Wednesday for supposedly telling fellow Senate Republicans that he wants President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee — whom Biden has said will be a Black woman — to be someone who “knows a law book from a J. Crew catalog.”

That’s according to a Politico Playbook report on a private Senate Republican lunch on Tuesday. It noted that the Louisiana Republican, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, “didn’t exactly tamp down his rhetoric” while discussing whether it was counterproductive for the GOP to battle against Biden’s SCOTUS nominee.

“No. 1, I want a nominee who knows a law book from a J. Crew catalog. No. 2, I want a nominee who’s not going to try to rewrite the Constitution every other Thursday to try to advance a ‘woke agenda.’” — Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.)
His remarks drew backlash on Twitter after the news broke on Wednesday, leading J. Crew to trend in the afternoon as readers discussed what they thought Kennedy meant by those words.

Many saw racial undertones in the catalog comment, noting that former first lady Michelle Obama, a Black woman, was known for wearing a lot of J. Crew.

The senator was not immediately available for comment. But it should be noted that Kennedy has said variations on this phrase a few times before. In 2019, for example, while discussing whether then-President Donald Trump had the authority to declare a national emergency over the border wall, Kennedy told Fox News that, “Past presidents have used the National Emergencies Act 60 times. Anybody who knows an L.L. Bean catalog from a law book knows, ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court will give us guidance on this.”

tek wrote: ↑Thu Feb 03, 2022 5:22 am Senator Haney

haney_kennedy.jpg

American Oversight @weareoversight wrote: Emails we obtained, reported on by @politico, suggest that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is in regular contact with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

In a June 2021, Ginni Thomas said DeSantis should be familiar with her because “my husband has been in contact with him[.]”

Jane Mayer @JaneMayerNYer wrote: Note that Ginni Thomas says her secret Groundswell group has "the help of Judicial Watch." Here's a link to a recent amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court by Judicial Watch against Harvard's affirmative action program - Any conflict of interest?
https://supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/2 ... filing.pdf

Andrew Bates @AndrewJBates46 wrote: SCOTUS Update: The President has not yet chosen a nominee. He continues to evaluate eminently qualified individuals in the mold of Justice Breyer who have the strongest records, intellect, character, and dedication to the rule of law that anyone could ask for - and all of whom...
...would be deserving of bipartisan support. He looks forward to announcing a nominee this month.

Paul Ryan @SpeakerRyan wrote: Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family. Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal.

Manu Raju @mkraju wrote: GOP Sen. Blackburn on timing of SCOTUS pick:

"President Biden’s announcement just days after an unprovoked full scale invasion by Russia is extremely inappropriate. Once again, Biden is putting the demands of the radical progressive left ahead of what is best for our nation"

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 11:32 am

Paul Ryan @SpeakerRyan wrote: Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family. Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal.

andersweinstein wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 1:11 pm

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 11:32 am

Paul Ryan @SpeakerRyan wrote: Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family. Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal.

The relationship is complicated. Via Twitter:
KBJ is Paul Ryan's wife’s sister’s husband’s identical twin brother’s wife.
Or: Paul Ryan's sister-in-law is married to KBJ's brother-in-law
Or just:

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 12:09 pm Blackburn
https: //twitter.com/jamisonfoser/status/1497254962509668362?s=20

Manu Raju @mkraju wrote: GOP Sen. Blackburn on timing of SCOTUS pick:

"President Biden’s announcement just days after an unprovoked full scale invasion by Russia is extremely inappropriate. Once again, Biden is putting the demands of the radical progressive left ahead of what is best for our nation"

Edward Dudley, Civil Rights Warrior at Home and Abroad
Meet the man who shaped the NAACP’s legal strategy with Thurgood Marshall.
Edward R. Dudley joined the legal staff of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1943. While the NAACP has a considerable legal staff today, only one other full-time lawyer comprised the staff in 1943: future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Far less known than his counterpart, Dudley served as the NAACP’s assistant special counsel and provided much needed support to Marshall over years and a series of landmark cases. The duo often coordinated with civil rights lawyers in other states to help them file NAACP lawsuits. Through Dudley and Marshall’s leadership this cadre of lawyers, though small in number, would leave an indelible mark on the civil rights movement.

During the 1940s, education was a centerpiece of the NAACP’s constitutional litigation. Dudley and Marshall’s strategy did not begin with a frontal attack on Jim Crow’s “separate but equal” constitutional standard. Rather, their legal teams led an incrementalist attack that operated within the “separate but equal” standard. The NAACP’s goal was to make segregation too expensive to maintain, recognizing that if courts actually required states to equalize their segregated institutions, the high financial costs of equalization would eventually put an end to segregated education.

Dudley and Marshall filed lawsuits throughout the South seeking to equalize public school teachers’ salaries. Segregated public school systems often paid white teachers more than Black teachers solely because of race. The NAACP only sought salary equalization, not full teacher desegregation, and so judges could increase Black teachers’ salaries without taking the more dramatic step of formally overturning the “separate but equal” standard.