The first Black person to serve as a federal judge in Alabama is discouraging President Joe Biden from nominating Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
U.W. Clemon, sent a letter to Biden on Feb. 4 urging him not to consider Brown Jackson for the Court, according to a copy obtained by NBC News.
The now-retired federal judge suggested Brown Jackson’s judicial record shows she’s not the right choice to become the first Black woman to serve on the highest court in the land.
“I strongly believe that Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson should not be appointed by you as the first Black female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,” Clemon wrote in his letter.
The reason for Clemon’s opposition to Brown Jackson, according to his letter, was her conduct in a 2016 class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of 5,500 Black Lockheed Martin workers who sued the company, in part, for allegedly engaging in “a pattern or practice of systemic intentional discrimination against African-American salaried employees,” according to their complaint.
Clemon said Brown Jackson, who presided over the case, refused to approve a $22 million settlement deal that lawyers for the Black plaintiffs negotiated with Lockheed Martin on their clients’ behalf.
“When the lawyers presented the settlement to Judge Jackson, she incredibly refused to approve the settlement because in her view there were no common factual questions,” Clemon said in his letter to Biden.
“Then, more incredibly, she denied the plaintiffs their fundamental right to take discovery of Lockheed Martin’s books and records as they sought to prove class action status.”
Clemon also said Brown Jackson denied the injunctive relief Lockheed Martin had agreed to, which would have “addressed a root cause of systemic racial bias that could have been a model for a nation hungry for racial equity solutions.”
He also accused Brown Jackson of denying the Black workers their “right to seek evidence to prove their claim of company-wide racial discrimination,” deliberately frustrating the plaintiffs in the process.
“Each of these considerations, standing alone, is a bell sounding the alarm that if Judge Jackson is appointed to the Supreme Court, simple justice and equality in the workplace will be sacrificed,” Clemon wrote.
“There are several exceptionally well-qualified Black female aspirants for the Supreme Court who have shown by their works their commitment to justice and equality,” he continued. “Please give each of them your favorable consideration.”
A spokesperson for Brown Jackson pointed out on Wednesday that Clemon currently serves as counsel at Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, the Washington D.C.-based law firm that represented the Black plaintiffs in their 2016 lawsuit against Lockheed Martin.
Clemon joined the law firm in 2017, according to his web bio. Brown Jackson’s spokesperson said Clemon failed to disclose his “conflict of interest” in his letter to the President.
The spokesperson also pointed out Brown Jackson has received letters of support from union groups including the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the National Education Association (NEA).
White House officials defended Brown Jackson in a statement recently obtained by AL.com.
“It’s because of Judge Jackson’s experience in roles at all levels of the justice system, her character, and her legal brilliance that President Biden nominated her to the D.C. Circuit Court, after which she earned her third Senate confirmation,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates wrote in his statement.
“He’s very proud of that decision,” Bates added.
This story has been updated with additional context provided by a spokesperson for Ketanji Brown Jackson.
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