John Brown's Body

     This is set to be a historic Black History Month, not least of all because of the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. President Biden stated in his announcement of Breyer's retirement that he would determine a successor by the end of February and that he would keep his campaign promise and nominate the first black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court in its nearly 250-year history.      There are a lot of names floating around. They are all excellent candidates; however, those who are not black women are not in the running. That is not to say that they cannot be nominated for other high-level federal judgeships. Kenji Yoshino, an openly gay Japanese American who is a professor at Harvard, could fill one of the multitudes of open seats for the District of Massachusetts. Pamela S. Karlan, a bisexual Jewish woman, has made controversial statements in the past, so she would best serve on a court like the Northern District of California. Goodwin ...

     On August 27th, 2021, three days before eight-year-old Fanta Bility was due to start third grade, she was cheering on her cousin at his high school football game in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania. On that warm, late-summer day, in the back seat of the family car in the school's parking lot, she was struck in the back by a bullet; she died in her mother's arms that day, in that parking lot. Numerous relatives were injured, including Fanta's 13-year-old cousin.      The person who fired the bullet was not a thug in the traditional sense, but one in a uniform. We'll never know which one it was because the bullet was badly damaged as it destroyed that poor child's visceral organs. What we do know is that there are three officers responsible for her murder: Officers Devon G. Smith, Sean Patrick Dolan, and Brian James Devaney.      Smith, Dolan, and Devaney went to the high school that day to break up a gunfight between two children, Hasein Strand ...

     On November 24th, 2021, Americans got something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. Just over a week after privileged little white supremacist Kyle Rittenhouse was cleared of a mass shooting when the Kenosha judge presiding over the case acted as his defense attorney, Travis McMichael, his father Greg, and neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan were convicted of a combined total of 23 felony counts, with Travis McMichael being convicted of malice murder eight other charges, Gregory McMichael convicted of felony murder and seven other charges, and Bryan being convicted of felony murder and five other counts.       Today, Americans got further proof that, even when issues like race and racism are at the center of these high-profile cases, though the courts may not be able to provide answers to these questions, they can provide accountability. America's criminal justice system can work. Judge Walmsley made it clear that it was the attitudes of the McMichael...