LYNCHBURG, Va. – For the first time in the nation’s history, a Black woman now sits on the United States Supreme Court – Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in Thursday after Justice Stephen Breyer retired.
Aharown Campbell, an aspiring attorney, told us how this moment impacted him.
“Even after all the turmoil, look to 2022 where now the second African American and a woman Supreme Court Justice is now sitting there in the highest court of the land,” Campbell said. “We see how wrongs become right.”
In his third year of law school at Liberty University, Campbell understands how significant this moment is.
This small group of people is appointed for life to interpret the Constitution and provide decisions that will affect the whole country, if not the world.
“It’s important to understand even the development of the United States on this Independence Day that a large chunk of our history was linked to this idea of slave labor and viewing people not as equal,” Campbell said. “We have cases, Supreme Court cases, like Plessy v. Ferguson and Loving v. Virginia that said that interracial marriage couldn’t happen and African Americans were not even considered citizens in this country.”
As a federal defense attorney, Jackson comes from a lineage of advocacy. Campbell said she will have insight other justices might not have because of this, and not because of the color of her skin.
“It’s a beautiful point where we’ve come, but realistically speaking, application of law should be neutral in order to respect everyone who is involved,” Campbell said.
The Supreme Court has been in the news a lot recently and Campbell said the legal system has its flaws.
However, as we honor a new Justice, there’s one thing Campbell wants people to keep in mind.
“It’s one of the greatest things in the world,” Campbell said. “If people were just to be so bold as to step in the crucible and treat each other with dignity in this adversarial system, I think justice will take care of itself.”