Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearing transcript

1

Senator Marsha Blackburn: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, can you provide a definition for the word “woman”?

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: Can I provide a definition? I can’t.

Blackburn: You can’t?

KBJ: Not in this context, I’m not—you know, actually, I think there’s something of an important point here, but it’s rather subtle.

Blackburn: You mean the meaning of the word “woman” is so unclear—

KBJ: —sorry, uh, sorry interrupt, and to derail this hearing, but I think this is actually pretty interesting and worth digging into a little bit. I hereby invoke the ancient Right of Dialectic.

Blackburn: [grudgingly] Very well.

[ Eight colossal living statues made of pure marble erupt from the hearing room floor. They immediately pair off to guard each point of egress from the room. A brief murmur passes over the audience, followed by silence. ]

KBJ: My apologies, I’ll try to make this quick. Senator, it seems you are very wise in the ways of words and their definitions. As I am likely to soon be a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, this expertise of yours may prove quite an asset to me. It is my hope that you can become my teacher and provide me with many definitions of which I am currently ignorant, so that I may better serve our great nation.

Blackburn: [reluctantly] I accept.

2

KBJ: Excellent! Then let us waste no time. There is a word about which I am ignorant that I hope you can tell me the meaning of. Can you provide a definition for the word “doctor”?

Blackburn: Certainly.

KBJ: Then what is the definition?

Blackburn: A doctor is a trained medical professional.

KBJ: Thank you Senator. And I am to understand that this is not merely a general explanation of what a doctor is, but in fact a definition of the term, as I have requested?

Blackburn: Quite so.

KBJ: Then you have been very helpful to me, and done just as I asked. I would like to make sure I understand your meaning by way of an example. I have a friend who works as a nurse. You would agree, I assume, he is a professional?

Blackburn: Of course.

KBJ: And that he is specifically a medical professional?

Blackburn: It would seem so.

KBJ: My friend attended nursing school for several years; would you thus say he is trained?

Blackburn: It would be hard to deny, Ketanji.

KBJ: Then, as you have said, my friend is a doctor?

Blackburn: Of course not, Ketanji. You seem to deliberately misunderstand me.

KBJ: I see I have made an error in comprehension. I apologize—as I have said, I am ignorant of the word’s definition, so I am likely to make many errors while I am still learning its meaning.

3

Blackburn: It is hard for me to believe that you would not know this, Ketanji, but nurses are not doctors. A doctor is a specific kind of trained medical professional.

KBJ: Senator, I will admit I had suspected as much, but I did not feel I could say so with certainty until I knew the precise meaning of the word. And as you had just provided me with a definition, I wished to defer to your superior knowledge of the matter, and to not contradict you. Am I to understand that you are now revising the definition of “doctor” that you have supplied?

Blackburn: Yes. A doctor is a trained medical professional of a specific kind.

KBJ: I am glad to now understand why a nurse is not a doctor. But I must admit that I find this new definition to not have quite satiated my curiosity about the matter. Suppose you had come to me and asked, “Ketanji, what is the definition of ‘rectangle’?” and had I replied “A rectangle is a shape”. You may in this circumstance ask again “Is a circle a rectangle?” to which I might revise my definition, and say, “No, a rectangle is a specific kind of shape”—this would be an answer, but you would find your curiosity unsatisfied, for you would not know which kind of shape.

Blackburn: Very well, Ketanji. A doctor is a trained medical professional of the kind that may make diagnoses, prescribe medicine, and otherwise practice medicine freely.

KBJ: Thank you Senator. This new definition is very helpful. And I am thus to understand that it is the lack of these powers—to make diagnoses, prescribe medicine, and so on—that makes it so that a nurse is not a doctor?

Blackburn: Exactly so.

KBJ: And so it seems that another expertise of yours, Senator, has become relevant in our understanding of this matter—your expertise as a legislator. As I understand it, it is by the laws of various states that a nurse may not exercise these powers which define a doctor?

Blackburn: Yes, it is the law that prevents such a thing.

KBJ: Supposing then, as a Senator, you were to propose a bill to grant these powers to nurses—and that this bill was voted on and passed by the Senate, and by the House, and signed by the President, and was found in court to be valid—this would alter the law so that nurses would indeed have these powers?

Blackburn: I do not think such a thing is likely to occur, Ketanji, but in such a situation that would indeed be the case.

KBJ: Excellent. And thus, I’m sure you would agree, in the event of such a change in the law, my nurse friend would indeed be a trained medical professional, and would be of a kind in possession of just such powers as you described.

Blackburn: That is so.

KBJ: Then I now understand what you are saying—that though my friend is not a doctor now and is unlikely to ever become one, he would be a doctor in such event as the passage of the law that I described.

Blackburn: That is not at all what I said. You have described a law which would grant your friend, the nurse, the powers of a doctor, but this would not change the fact that he is a nurse. As I have already told you, the two are not the same.

KBJ: Senator, you have indeed told me as much, and yet you seem to be unwilling to tell me why! I certainly believe you that the two are different, but it is just what distinguishes the two that I am trying to determine, and have now asked about several times. If you are unwilling to tell me, please say as much explicitly, and we need not waste any more time on the matter.

Blackburn: I am willing to tell you, Ketanji, but you seem unwilling to listen. The distinction is that nurses are one thing, and doctors are another—the two are not the same.

4

KBJ: Ah! Senator, I think I now understand the source of my confusion, and I apologize for my slowness in understanding the matter. Would I be right to say that you mean your answer in the following sense: the sense in which, were I to ask you “what distinction separates a Major from a Lieutenant”, you might answer “a Major is one thing, and a Lieutenant is another”? That is, that “Doctor” and “Nurse” are in fact merely the names of different titles?

Blackburn: That is exactly what I mean, Ketanji, and I am relieved to see you finally understand.

KBJ: And just as Major and Lieutenant are titles bestowed by the higher officers in a military, it is the case that Nurse and Doctor are titles bestowed by some other group of people?

Blackburn: That is exactly so.

KBJ: I now see how foolish I was to ask for a definition of “doctor”. For as I now understand, “Doctor” is not really a word with a definition at all, but a label to be assigned at the discretion of the group you speak of. And when you said, “a Doctor is a trained medical professional”, what you meant was something like: “the title of Doctor is typically granted to trained medical professionals, though in theory it may be granted to anyone.”

Blackburn: I suppose that is what I meant, yes.

KBJ: And I infer now that you were merely trying to help me by providing me with a useful fact about how to whom the title of “Doctor” tends to be granted. And that if, tomorrow, this group you describe with power over the title “Doctor” decides to revoke it from all who currently have it, and then grant it to every living person with red hair, you would then say to me, “Ketanji, a Doctor is a person with red hair.”

Blackburn: No, I don’t think so. That would be rather ridiculous.

KBJ: I do agree such a situation would be ridiculous, Senator. But were such a situation to occur, is that not what you would say?

Blackburn: I very much doubt it Ketanji. I think I would say something like, “though these people have been granted the title of Doctor, they do not have the qualities of a real doctor, and so they have been bestowed the title inappropriately”.

KBJ: Oh, I see. For as “Lieutenant” is a title bestowed to individuals with certain qualities—decisiveness, valor, bravery, an so forth—so too are there qualities which are fitting of a Doctor; and just as “Lieutenant” may be bestowed in error to an individual without the corresponding qualities we expect of one, the same is true of “Doctor”.

Blackburn: You now understand.

KBJ: And it so that if the title “Doctor” were redistributed to all redheads, I might say to any redhead I meet, “though you are a Doctor, you are unworthy of the title; and I shall no longer request a Doctor when I seek healing, but some other kind of person.”

Blackburn: Once again, I don’t think that is quite right. I would rather say that the redheaded person is not in fact a real doctor, even though they have been granted the title of one; and that through such egregiously unwise distribution of the title, the group which distributes it has forfeited their privilege to do so.

KBJ: I must admit I find myself puzzled at this latest assertion of yours Senator, for it seems very different from how I might talk about other titles. For if I met a Lieutenant without the qualities fitting of a Lieutenant, that is, a Lieutenant without valor or bravery or any of the other things—I do not think I would say to them, “You are not in fact a real Lieutenant, even though you have been granted the title of one.” For it is just that granting of the title of Lieutenant that makes one so.

I do admit that I have heard people say this kind of thing from time to time, that so and so is “no Lieutenant at all” or similar for people judged to be unfit for their position, but I have always understood them to be speaking metaphorically. I would not expect any of them to say in such a case, “You are not a Lieutenant in exactly the same way as you are not nine feet tall, do not have wings, and do not breathe water—that is, regardless of your suitability for these attributes, you do not in fact possess them.”

But you had told me before that “Doctor” was like indeed “Lieutenant”, that it was merely a title that in theory may be bestowed to anyone, and now you seem to deny this.

5

Blackburn: I do not know what to tell you Ketanji, for you do not seem happy with whatever it is I say. I have told you the meaning of the word “doctor” several times now, and each time you have rejected what I have said.

KBJ: My dear Senator Blackburn, I have no trouble accepting any meaning for the word that you provide. It is rather you yourself who seems unable to accept the meanings you have provided me—for each time, you have contradicted yourself after doing so.

First you told me that there are various qualities that make someone a doctor, and then said that a person may have all these qualities without being a doctor. Next you told me “doctor” is a title that may be granted to anyone, and then told me that a person may have this title without being a doctor. As far as I am concerned, either one of these or something else entirely may be true, if you are satisfied to stick with it. But you do not seem satisfied with anything you tell me.

Blackburn: Ketanji, I assure you, the meaning of the word “doctor” is very simple and I could easily explain it to you with more time—but I remind you now that this is not my confirmation hearing, but yours, and out of respect for the time of everyone in this room, I think we had better resume normal proceedings.

KBJ: I did promise to make my inquiry quick, and I regret that it proved lengthier than I anticipated. It is a shame we could not bring my question to resolution and I look forward to a future occasion on which you have the time to answer my question in full. I hereby terminate my Right of Dialectic.

[ The marble colossals guarding each exit animate once more, march to the center of the room, and sink back into the floor. The audience applauds politely. ]

6

Blackburn: Judge Jackson, let’s pick back up right where we left off. Can you provide a definition for the word “woman”?

KBJ: I’ll do it for $100,000.