PHOTOGRAPHY
Howard University has
acquired a trove of images
by Gordon Parks. C3
MUSIC
Daughters Wynonna and
Ashley take part in tribute
to mother Naomi Judd. C4
THEATER REVIEW
“The Joy That Carries You”
is uplifting at Olney
Theatre Center. C5CAROLYN HAX
Are mother-in-law’s
attempts at secrecy
a form of control? C10KLMNO
Style
TUESDAY, MAY 17 , 2022. SECTION C EZ RE
BY ROXANNE ROBERTS
‘The weight of
wanting to succeed’
Justice-designate Jackson talks about her path to Supreme Court
DEMETRIUS FREEMAN/THE WASHINGTON POST
“It’s on my shoulders to make sure that I leave a good impression
so that others can follow,” Supreme Court Justice-designate Ketanji Brown Jackson
s ays in anticipation of being the first Black woman to sit on the high court.BY EMILY YAHR
After a week-long break in
court proceedings, Amber Heard
continued to testify Monday in a
defamation lawsuit brought by
her ex-husband Johnny Depp in
Fairfax County Circuit Court, tell-
ing a jury about further alleged
physical violence she said she
suffered during her time with
Depp, saying it got worse the
more he drank alcohol and used
drugs.
She broke down on the stand
multiple times as she recalled
filing for divorce and a restrain-
ing order in May 2016, saying she
did not want to end their mar-
riage but was afraid she would
not survive if she stayed with
him. Depp, who has denied all
allegations of abuse, is suing her
for $50 million for defamation
after she published an op-ed in
The Washington Post in 2018 in
which she referred to herself as a
public figure representing do-
mestic abuse. Depp has said the
article ruined his reputation and
career.
Heard also cried as she talked
about the emotional toll of the
trial — she is countersuing Depp
for $100 million after his lawyer
repeatedly called her accusations
a hoax, which she said torpedoed
her career. “The most intimate,
embarrassing, deeply humiliat-
ing things that I’ve survived are
used against me every day, over
and over again. It’s torture. I’m in
so much pain, emotionally,”
Heard said, and referenced her
1-year-old daughter. “I have a
baby. I want to move on. I want
Johnny to move on, too. I want
him to leave me alone.”
Cross-examination began later
in the afternoon. One of Depp’s
lawyers, Camille Vasquez, started
by playing an audio recording
SEE TRIAL ON C4Emotional
toll of trial
is ‘torture,’
Heard says
conservative activists she dis-
agrees with on many social is-
sues.
But what does the Bible say?
It’s “absolutely pro-life,” Sand-
ers says, “but not in a political
way. It’s a theological perspec-
tive.”
While many conservative
White evangelicals rejoiced after
the draft opinion was revealed,
the reception in Black churches
has often been more complicat-
ed. Some leaders of Black church-
es say they can’t help viewing the
debate through a racial lens:
Black women are more likely to
have abortions, according to Kai-
ser Family Foundation data,
while government reports show
they are also three times as likely
SEE BLACK CHURCHES ON C9BY CLYDE MCGRADY
AND LATESHIA BEACHUMWhen a draft Supreme Court
opinion leaked indicating that
Roe v. Wade could be overturned,
the Rev. Cheryl Sanders felt con-
flicted.
The senior pastor of D.C.’s
Third Street Church of God per-
sonally doesn’t support abortion
but is weary of the politics
around being labeled “pro-life”
and is grappling with how to
address the issue before her pre-
dominantly Black congregation.
“If you understand that in the
politicized term, it’s fraught with
problematic racial views and ex-
ceptions and blind spots,” she
says. And Sanders doesn’t want
to align herself with far-rightBlack churches and the abortion dilemma
2020 PHOTO BY ASTRID RIECKEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
The R ev. William H. Lamar IV, pastor of the Metropolitan
African Methodist Episcopal Church, says Supreme Court
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. is “being intellectually dishonest.”O
n a recent morning, Ketanji Brown Jackson spent an hour doing one of
her favorite things: talking about the law with young people. ¶
Jackson met with 21 high school students from Washington’s School
Without Walls who had participated in a mock court arguing about
their constitutional rights regarding political speech and search and seizure.
Normally, Jackson would have heard the arguments herself, but she was busy
this year — preparing for her confirmation hearing to become the first Black
female justice on the Supreme Court, which she’ll join this summer. ¶ She was
challenging and playful as she asked students questions and answered theirs.
One wanted to know whether a Supreme Court justice should be “in touch” with
public? “The rule of law is about people’s faith in the institution,” Jackson said.
“You sometimes hear a lot of talk about the importance of public perception —
having faith in the judiciary. I think one of the ways that judges can help
promote that is to not be isolated in an ivory tower but actually be in
communication with the people whom the law governs.” SEE JACKSON ON C2BY KARIN TANABE
It all sounded so glamorous.
The Hollywood starlet. Her fa-
mous best friends. A dash of her
dashing family. They’re the lions
of Hollywood, on their way to safa-
ri in the Serengeti. On this luxury
excursion, there’s even a kerosene-
powered ice machine to chill the
gin and tonics. What could possi-
bly go wrong?
Well, just about everything.
In Chris Bohjalian’s latest book,
“The Lioness,” things are calm for
all of a dozen pages before the roar
— both human and animal — be-
gins.
But in that calm, the stage is set.
It’s 1964 and Katie Barstow is the
queen of Hollywood. The daugh-
ter of famous New York theater
folk with a legacy of alcohol and
abuse, she ran to the West Coast
for the quiet life. What she found is
fame, fortune and good people.
So good that she’s decided to
turn her honeymoon adventure
into a buddy moon. Katie’s just
married David Hill — a struggling
gallerist who is also her brother’s
best friend from childhood. He
was a support during that bleak
time and now is not intimidated
by his wife’s bank account — or her
honeymoon choices. Joining them
on safari are seven others — in-
cluding Terrance Dutton, a Black
actor whose star is rising and with
SEE BOOK WORLD ON C3
BOOK WORLD
A posh
African
safari t urns
terrifying
THE LIONESS
By Chris
Bohjalian
Doubleday.
336 pp. $28