A Republican lawmaker is taking aim at President Joe Bidenās Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, after a moment from her confirmation hearing went viral.
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) spoke on the House floor where he said to the chair, āThank you, Person Speaker.ā
āI say Person Speaker because Iām not a biologist, and out of respect to our Supreme Court nominee I donāt feel qualified to say Madam Speaker,ā he added.
Watch the video below:
Good was opposing an insulin bill, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which the House of Representatives passed on Thursday.
The measure ācaps cost-sharing under private health insurance for a monthās supply of selected insulin products at $35 or 25% of a planās negotiated price (after any price concessions), whichever is less, beginning in 2023.ā
It now goes to the Senate.
Goodās remarks targeting Bidenās Supreme Court nominee refer to a moment during her confirmation hearing when Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) asked the judge, āCan you provide a definition for the word āwomanā?ā
The judge asked, āCan I provide a definition?ā
After confirming that was her question, Jackson said, āI canāt.ā
She then explained, āNot in this context Iām not a biologist.ā
In case you missed it:
Blackburn pressed Jackson, āSo, you believe the meaning of the word āwomanā is so unclear and controversial that you canāt give me a definition?ā
āSenator, in my work as a judge, what I do is I address disputes. If thereās a dispute about a definition, people make arguments, and I look at the law and I decide,ā the judge claimed.
However, the Republican lawmaker shot back, āThe fact that you canāt give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education that we are hearing about.ā
Following her comments, USA Today cited āscientists, gender law scholars and philosophers of biologyā who agree Jacksonās response was ācommendable, though perhaps misleading.ā
āThere isnāt one single ābiologicalā answer to the definition of a woman. Thereās not even a singular biological answer to the question of āwhat is a female,'ā Rebecca Jordan-Young, a scientist and gender studies scholar at Barnard College, told USA Today.
The article said, āThere are at least six different biological markers of āsexā in the body: genitals, chromosomes, gonads, internal reproductive structures, hormone ratios and secondary sex characteristics. None of the six is strictly dichotomous.ā
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) brought up the back-and-forth between Jackson and Blackburn when he said, āYesterday under questioning from Senator Blackburn, you told her that you couldnāt define what a woman is, that you are not a biologist, which I think you are the only Supreme Court nominee in history who has been unable to answer the question, āWhat is a woman?ā
He asked, āLet me ask you as a judge, how would you determine if a plaintiff had Article 3 standing to challenge a gender based rule, regulation, policy without being able to determine what a woman was?ā
āI know that I am a woman, I know that Senator Blackburn is a woman,ā Jackson said, adding, āAnd the woman who I admire most in the world is in the room today ā my mother.ā
