The Times - UK (2022-04-08)

the times | Friday April 8 2022 2GM 33

apologised for “inciting hate”. Aduriz
said it was meant to be a celebration of
life rather than macabre meditation on
abortion. “The people who get most
offended are curiously those who have
the most perverse view,” Aduriz told
El Pais. “They don’t see life, they see

Macron attacks pro-Russian

Le Pen as race narrows

Page 34

First black woman

appointed to US

Supreme Court

Analysis

P

resident Biden scored

one of those precious

commodities in US

politics: a win (David

Charter writes).

His candidate was confirmed to

her lifetime appointment at the

Supreme Court with a bipartisan

vote in the Senate.

No one remembers exactly

how many Democrats voted for

President Trump’s three

successful nominees (none in the

case of Amy Coney Barrett) but

the fig leaf provided by the three

Republicans who supported

Ketanji Brown Jackson will give

Biden a glimmer of hope for his

attempt to revive a golden age of

co-operation on Capitol Hill.

Moreover, in an election year,

he has given his troops at least

something to show voters for

their efforts in Washington.

Midterm elections are

notoriously rough for the party in

the White House and everything

points to the Republicans seizing

control of the House of

Representatives and putting a

block on Biden’s legislative plans.

Democrats are already in

damage-limitation mode. They

need to stop the disillusionment

of their base, with the highest

number of retirements from

Congress since 1992.

That means being able to turn

out their own voters to curb the

new Republican House majority

and perhaps cling on to the

evenly divided Senate.

Biden picked Jackson after

making a pledge to save his own

career to primary voters in South

Carolina, so he knows how much

he owes black voters. But they are

unlikely to be motivated by

yesterday’s win. Activists want

major legislation — on police

reform, voting rights and

legalisation of cannabis — that

the Democrats have not delivered.

Hugh Tomlinson

Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first

black woman confirmed to the US

Supreme Court, an appointment that

prompted celebrations among Demo-

crats and gives President Biden a des-

perately needed victory.

Jackson’s ascent to the highest court

was confirmed by a 53-47 vote in the

Senate, as three moderate Republicans

switched sides to support Biden’s nomi-

nation. After a confirmation process in

which right-wing Republicans attacked

Jackson’s record, accusing her of being

soft on crime, the vote was hailed by

senior Democrats as “one of the great

moments of America’s history”.

Jackson, 51, becomes the third black

justice and the sixth woman to join the

bench in its 233-year history. With justi-

ces Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan

on the liberal side and Amy Coney Bar-

rett among the conservatives on the

bench, for the first time, four of the nine

justices are now women.

Jackson and Biden watched the Sen-

ate vote together from the White

House and were pictured embracing as

her confirmation became certain.

“We are beginning to write another

chapter in our nation’s quest for equal

justice under the law, and that chapter

begins with three letters — KBJ,” said

Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman

of the Senate judiciary committee. Dur-

bin noted that when the Supreme Court

was founded in the late 18th century,

there were more than a million black

slaves in America.

Biden pledged to nominate a black

woman to the court during his presiden-

tial campaign, and Jackson’s confirma-

tion is a boost as he seeks to rally Demo-

crats, and particularly black voters,

before midterm elections in November.

Jackson’s confirmation was all-but

assured after the Republican senators

Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and

Mitt Romney confirmed their support.

The trio faced fury from Republican

colleagues, who interrogated Jackson

for more than 20 hours last month.

Jackson’s appointment does not

change the balance of the court, which

swung to a six-three conservative

majority under Donald Trump, who

appointed three justices. He secured his

first appointment after Senate Republi-

cans blocked President Obama’s last

court nominee for the final year of his

presidency. The second appoint-

ment of Brett Kavanaugh was

marred by allegations of sexual

assault, while the

death of the liberal

justice Ruth Bader

Ginsburg in 2020

allowed Republi-

cans to ram

through the

confirmation

of Barrett in

the final weeks

of Trump’s

tenure.

With a con-

servative majority secured, Republicans

have embarked on a string of politically

charged cases, including an attempt

to roll back the right to abortion.

Jackson’s confirmation hear-

ings highlighted the partisan

divide, as Republicans ac-

cused her of issuing

lenient sentences to con-

victed paedophiles and

criticising her for

defending terrorist

detainees in Guan-

tanamo Bay during

her time as a public

defence lawyer.

The American

Bar Association

responded by say-

ing that Jackson’s

qualifications

were

“impeccable”.

Ketanji Brown Jackson’s

appointment means four of

the nine justices are women

is tasteless, anti-abortionists tell chef

death, they see foetuses. That paradox

is very surprising.”

The dish is made from a gelatine from

the paste of broad beans moulded to

look like an embryo. The “amniotic

fluid” is made from a broth of ham and

broad beans. Aduriz said that he chose

to use broad beans because in ancient

times they were often used to represent

embryos, owing to the shape.

Pablo Hertfelder, president of the

Institute for Social Policy, said in a

video posted on Twitter that the dish

was “an insult and a joke at the expense

of the more than 99,149 children in

Spain who have been aborted”, accord-

ing to figures for 2019, and claimed to

represent more than 10,000 people

who were demanding an apology. The

restaurant said that the dish was

prepared only for special events such as

academic seminars “to explore the

limits of human contradiction”.

It added: “We deeply regret that the

unverified images and information that

has been disseminated by third parties

may have been capable of offending

sensitivities.”

Aduriz, who worked as an apprentice

at the celebrated El Bulli restaurant

north of Barcelona owned by Ferran

Adrià, has previously said that his aim

was to disturb and shock with his cook-

ing. His experimental dishes include

vegetarian carpaccio, which is water-

melon sliced to look like slivers of beef.

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The “embryo dish” uses broad beans