The Post and Courier, May 19, 2019
It’s a simple question.
For years, potential federal judges have been tossed the same softball at their Senate confirmation hearings: Do you support the United States Supreme Court decisionBrown v. Board of Education?
That unanimous 1954 ruling — which turned 65 on Friday — was the court’s most monumental decision of the 20th century. By declaring segregated schools unconstitutional, Chief Justice Earl Warren doomed Jim Crow laws and paved the way for the civil rights movement.
Usually, the inevitable Brown question gives candidates a chance to look good. It’s not partisan, and it’s not controversial. Every conservative member of the current Supreme Court praises the case. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito credit the decision with guaranteeing the equal rights of all citizens.
Even Brett Kavanaugh, in his contentious confirmation hearing, called Brown “the single greatest moment in Supreme Court history.”
But in the past year, many of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees have refused to give an opinion on Brown — and that insults the legacy of the South Carolina residents who led the charge to make this country live up to its declaration that “all men are created equal.”