All Rise: Emerging legal issues lecture talks Supreme Court nominees

Students gathered in Old Main on Thursday, April 5, to discuss “Emerging Legal Issues” by pre-law adviser Lisa Woods and adjunct professor Steven Kowal.

Kentanji Brown Jackson’s photo appeared on the first slide as Woods began to discuss that Jackson is the newest Supreme Court nominee, nominated by President Joe Biden. 

Woods and Kowal explained the confirmation process for Supreme Court justice nominees has become more contentious and politicized over time. Former President Donald Trump was cited as an example when describing his nominations of three justices confirmed under his term. 

This was noted as an issue that generated much controversy in his term because of the fact that Former President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland as a Supreme Court justice and the Republican-led Senate decided it was too close to the election to vote to confirm or deny Judge Garland. 

Kowal began his portion of the presentation explaining that the senate vote results for the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice have changed over time. Today, they are evenly split. 

It was brought to the group’s attention that there have been 15 justices confirmed by Republican presidents and eight justices confirmed by Democratic presidents. 

President Biden’s administration has put together a committee that would propose several different methods that could address the court packing issue seen today. The first proposal discussed changing the number of justices in the Supreme Court. 

The constitution does not specify how many justices should be put in place. This proposal would emphasize on restoring balance. Another proposal that was discussed included imposing a systematic approach to the timing of nominations. 

As it stands today, Supreme Court justices end their term when they retire or die. Implementing a fixed number of years for a term could remedy the issue of having some presidents nominate more justices than others.

Woods and Kowal opened the discussion up to the students at the end of their presentation with students asking, “What is the best policy direction for the Supreme Court?” and “Should we continue with the current selection process?”

When discussing the matters for which Jackson was criticized for her actions as a judge during her questioning by the Senate, Kowal explained the potential rationale behind the questioning.

“The senators used the questioning to raise questions that will be supportive of their political interests and directions,” said Kowal. “This has moved it to what can be partisan.” 

Kowal admitted that he would hate the idea of making the Supreme Court more responsive to political issues. 

“Justices shouldn’t be focused on a litmus test that they have to gain before being a justice,” said Kowal.

Woods agreed by saying, “If you have a case that goes before the Supreme Court, you want that justice to know the law and do their job well.” 

While she stated this, she also acknowledged that there are different ways that the constitution is interpreted, which is what essentially makes liberal thinkers and politicians different from those who are conservative.

Update: Jackson was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Friday, April 8, by a Senate vote of 53-47.