“I feel like it’s really important to have African Americans in positions that really do affect us,” said Horton, who has a bachelor’s degree in geoscience, and plans to pursue work in energy and environmental law in hopes of representing Black communities that are affected by environmental issues.
“Having someone sit on the highest bench in the country, I definitely feel like it will open a lot of doors for us,” Horton said. Her point of view at the Houston school is one shared more than 1,100 miles away at the North Carolina Central University School of Law, where Professor Brenda Reddix-Smalls raised the issue during a Zoom session of the constitutional law course she teaches.Second-year law student Antoinette Stone, 26, said that, with liberal-leaning justices still outnumbered, Biden’s nominee might not sway overall case outcomes, but that even dissenting opinions “still hold weight.
In North Carolina, examples of prominent Black female jurists include current state Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, who has been suggested as someone Biden could consider for the vacancy created by Breyer, and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who is favored to win the Democratic nomination in the state’s U.S. Senate race. Beasley was the first Black woman to oversee North Carolina’s judicial branch.
Qualifications Ability Above all