Conservatives are pushing GOP senators to put Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson 'on the spot' about critical race theory after she said her parents kept a CRT theorist's book on their coffee table

• Conservatives are questioning Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's position on critical race theory.
• A conservative news site cited her comment that her parents kept a CRT theorist's book on their table.

Conservatives are calling Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketaji Brown Jackson's legal philosophy into question after digging up her earlier complimentary comments about advocates of critical race theory. They're pushing Republican lawmakers to press her on the issue as the Senate Judiciary Committee conducts her confirmation hearings this week.

They are raising concerns after a review by the conservative news site Daily Wire found that Jackson in a 2020 lecture highlighted a book by the late civil rights attorney and professor Derrick Bell, a founding critical race theorist, and said her parents kept the book on their coffee table for many years.

The review found Jackson has avoided "openly championing" critical race theory, a framework for studying racism in US laws and institutions. But, the report says, she has complimented CRT advocates in speeches "and suggested that the progressive theory informs her legal analysis."

The Republican National Committee's rapid response team said the Daily Wire reporting "raises extremely concerning questions" about Brown's legal philosophy. "Jackson must be asked if she will draw on CRT and her other radical beliefs if confirmed to the Supreme Court," the RNC wrote.

The Senate confirmed Jackson as a DC Court of Appeals judge in 2021, and now she could become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. Her confirmation hearings that started Monday at the Senate Judiciary Committee come as the country is at odds over the teaching of race in classrooms.

Conservative politicians have seized on the topic to win votes with their base, arguing that some lessons about race go too far, and passing legislation in some states to restrict the teaching of CRT. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee, in an e-book, argued the CRT concepts have "infiltrated our education system." Educators say it isn't taught in K-12 schools.

"Americans will be watching this week as Joe Biden's nominee must address unanswered questions regarding her radical record, praise of Critical Race Theory, and soft-on-crime sentencing," RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement as the hearing began. "Ketanji Brown Jackson is the far-left activist judge that Joe Biden promised to nominate, and that out-of-touch agenda will be on full display for the American people this week."

The Daily Wire report cites the January 2020 lecture in which Jackson highlighted the book, "Faces At the Bottom of the Well," by Bell. She said that before the civil rights gains of the 1960s, Black women "were the quintessential faces at the bottom of the well of American society."

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo, a leading voice against CRT, tweeted that senators should cite passages from the book and ask if she agrees with them. "Put her on the spot about critical race theory," he tweeted.

During the same lecture, the Daily Wire says, she highlighted the New York Times Magazine's 1619 Project, an accounting of US history with slavery's consequences and Black Americans' contributions to America at the center. Jackson cited journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones' "provocative thesis that the America that was born in 1776 was not the perfect union that it purported to be, and that it is actually only through the hard work, struggles, and sacrifices of African Americans over the past two centuries that the United States has finally become the free nation that the Framers initially touted."

Jackson also said she has "drawn heavily" from the "excellent insights" of the wife of the late Derrick Bell, Janet Dewart Bell, who has defended CRT.

The Daily Wire also highlights a 2015 lecture on federal prison sentencing guidelines, in which Jackson said sentencing "is just plain interesting on an intellectual level" because it melds myriad types of law, including critical race theory.

In her opening statement, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee pointed to Jackson's "praise" for the 1619 Project and said Jackson has "made clear" that she believes judges must consider CRT when deciding how to sentence criminal defendants.

"Is it your personal hidden agenda to incorporate critical race theory into our legal system?" Blackburn said. "These are answers that the American people need to know."

Jackson's confirmation hearings will continue through Thursday at the Judiciary Committee where she'll eventually have to respond to questions about her record and positions.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas touched on the issue during his opening statement, saying Attorney General Merrick Garland mobilized federal authorities "against parents who dared question the entrenched teachers unions who are poisoning their children with racist vitriol known as critical race theory."

Garland in October called on the FBI to address illegal threats against school leaders, who have encountered protests over face mask mandates, controversial books, and the teaching of race and gender in schools.