 Welcome to Sister Power. I'm Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Today, we are celebrating Judge Katanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve as a justice. Speaking through tears and punctuated by emotional size, Judge Katanji Brown Jackson invoked ancestors who overcame slavery and segregation in her first public comments about her confirmation as the first Black woman Supreme Court justice in the country's history last Friday. It has taken 230 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson said, from the podium on the White House south lawn, but we've made it. We've made it all of us and our children are telling me that they see now more than ever that here in America, anything is possible. My special guest, we have Judge Sandra A. Sims, Attorney Adafi Barbie Wooten, and Attorney Leslie Matthews. Welcome, Queens. Thank you. Thank you so much. This is, I'm just excited. So I'm going to go down and I want each one of you are going to start with Judge Sims. Just speak directly to Judge Katanji Brown Jackson and congratulate her. Well, Aloha Justice Katanji Brown Jackson. I am so excited and so happy for your appointment to the United States Supreme Court. And I'd like to offer, as a retired judge and a woman of some experience in the law coming in at a time when there were not many women attorneys, and certainly not many women judges. I am particularly pleased and particularly excited to welcome you to this auspicious court. And I wish you the absolute best. And many, many, many, many years to come. Well, Aloha Justice Katanji Brown Jackson. I, every time I say that, I get tears and chills because it's been far too long. We have never had an African-American female ever, ever, ever in this country's history to be a Supreme Court justice. It's, again, it's taken too long, but now that we have one, I'm just so proud of you. Showing the light, showing other young women, even older women like myself, that there's a lot we can accomplish. And the sky is not the limit. We can go beyond the sky. And I'm really looking forward to reading your decisions, to hearing you speak, to making decisions. And you can come to Hawaii as well. And share your manao with us in Hawaii. I just, I love it. Love it. Love it. I'm thrilled. Leslie. Justice Katanji Brown Jackson. Thank you for having a dream as a young woman that you wanted to be a judge. Thank you for showing us that it is okay to not only dream, but to reach our goals, set goals and reach those goals. We feel your power all the way here in Hawaii. This is an especially important moment for me with you having been born. I believe you were born in Washington, D.C. And my family is from Washington, D.C. And that we can see history in the making. We don't have to wonder whether or not a black woman can be appointed as our justice to the Supreme Court. We know that it's possible because we see that in you. We see that in your daughters that you've raised to be such powerful young women. And to address their, the president as your, as one of your daughters did. And so I look at this moment as a life changing moment. I was in a text thread with some other black female attorneys here in Hawaii during the confirmation process. We were in tears. We were watching history being made. So justice Katanji Brown Jackson, we are so proud of you. We are so proud of you. We're just so proud of you that from sisters in part in Hawaii and sister power, we extend an aloha invitation for you to come to Hawaii anytime. Just call on us and thank you so much for your service. And so I want to ask you, Judge Sims, what does this moment mean to you? Certainly it is an extraordinary moment and an extraordinary time for us as as women attorneys, as black women attorneys, as women judges and as black women judges. And so what is important to me when I see her appointment is that I see in her a range of experience that encompasses everything that it means to be an attorney, what those skills entail. She brings to the, to the bench. Well, to the Supreme Court, she's been on the bench, but she brings to that, to that experience of being a Supreme Court justice, that of having had a trial experience. She's, she's represented clients. She's tried cases. She's had, she works, she was on the district court. So she presided over cases. She was on the appeals court. So she addressed that issue as well. And she comes from a background that has a variety of experiences, particularly for people who come into contact with our court system. So she brings such a diverse view. And that's what is important to our judge, to the judiciary is having a view of people who have a variety of lived experiences, certain she's lived as a, she's, she's a black woman. So there was that experience. She comes from a family that's had experience in law enforcement, as well as having had some experience on the other side of the other bench. So she understands all of the issues that can, that can be involved. She has, she has children. She has all of these lived experiences that make your, that impact, not, not, they impact your decision to make it not the sense of what you make a decision about, but it also brings those level of experiences in a way that excuse expression that you don't have with a lot of white males. They don't have all of those lived experiences. And so she brings that, that perspective, and that experience to the bench. And that's going to be important in how decisions are made. She's going to be viewing, viewing the decision. I think it ought to be done for everything that we do in our society, viewing the world through the eyes of women and women who have lived and practiced law and sat on the bench and, and made decisions because there is that perspective. We have a perspective that is, that is empowering and, and important and missing in so many aspects of our life. I'm sorry I've gone over, but that's just something terribly, terribly strongly about. I'm loving it and everything you say. Thank you. Thank you. You put yourself up so eloquently. Tony, Stephanie Barbie, name a trait you specifically love about this appointment. The trait that I specifically love is knowing that in high school, in the high school yearbook, she wrote that she was going to become a lawyer and become a judge. Her steadfastness, steadfastness to continue along her life path, path from age, what, 18, all the way up to age 51 to that commitment to her goal that she made at a very young age, very young age. She went through law school, went through undergrad. She became a judge, district court judge, and then a circuit court judge. I mean, to me, that's an admirable trait for anybody to have a purpose and to continue to go to and to live in your purpose. And she had a lot of obstacles. We all knew by listening to the hearings that there was a lot of things thrown at her, but she persevered. She didn't let it get her excited. She kept going. She had a very judicial temperament. She answered questions such as are you, do you know what a woman means? A very moderate way, whereas I'd say, yeah, do you know, but she was much, she was much more composed because she had a purpose and a goal. I just want to say one, I know one last thing is that Sam Cook song, change is going to come. Change is going to come. Well, it came. I love it. Absolutely. I really am. I'm loving this conversation with the queen, the legal queen, you know, but I want to come to the freshness here that are new coming into the legal system. First, I want you to tell us about your new assignment. And then after that, Attorney Matthews, how does Judge Katanji Brown Jackson, being our next Supreme Court Justice, impact us here in Hawaii? I am just thrilled that my grandmother was born 100 years ago. And 100 years ago, she didn't have the right to vote. There was so many rights that she didn't have. And that now we have somebody as the highest in the highest court in our land, I'll be making decisions to impact the rights that we have. You know, there's so many, you know, whole women's health care is on the line. Who we protect is on the line. How do we protect people? You know, I've always said it's not good to push legislation on the backs of our children as we see happening in places like Texas and Florida. And so here in Hawaii, where we have more privileges and our rights are more protected, I would love to see those things happen, not only in Hawaii, but at a national level. And so I think that what's happening, even though it's happening in DC, absolutely has something to do here. And I think what it even shows now is for those young kids that have names that may be difficult to pronounce, correct them, because one day they just might be the next Supreme Court Justice or our next president or our next business leader. And it lets people see what's possible. I recall walking outside. I practiced throughout Hawaii, but mainly on Maui. And I was walking outside and a young lady in high school saw me and she goes, what do you do? And I said, well, I'm an attorney. She goes, oh, I didn't know girls could be attorneys. And I said, you go back and you talk to your guidance counselor and you tell them that you're interested in law school. So we have to understand representation matters. See ourselves in different places matter. And before we went live, we were sharing, I'm the newest was elected to be the newest president of the Maui County Bar Association. And I'll have to go back through the history, but I think I'm the first black person to serve as the president. And so you are trust me, you are. Okay, I just said I am so I trust judge. So what we're going to do is and I love what what was said before me. As a black woman, you have a different view on things. So we know what we're going to get back into the community. We're going to make sure that people know that attorneys are accessible that we're people that you can have an advocate to represent your your your your your interest in court and in the community. And we're going to be visible. And that's what I think is the most powerful thing is that she stood in her power and she was unwavering in her power. And I think that that's important for Hawai'i as well. I love that earlier when you were speaking, I was clutching my pearls when she said the woman did not know that women could be you know that was that was that was that this that's disturbing to me in some ways because I think back to the time and I think back to the time when I first started practicing here in Hawaii and it was like in in the early 80s. And at that time, the bar association had a directory that had all the lawyers pictures in the directory. And there was an opening on the circuit court at that time. And so the question we were some of us I was sitting around with the law clerks and the judges at the ICA. And we're talking about, you know, having a woman go to be named to the circuit court. And Judge Padgett, who knows everything about Maui, I'll tell you, Leslie, of course, he's passed away, but he could have told you there, you're going to be the you're the first. But he actually went through the directory, we're all going to and at that time, this is just in the 80s, not that long ago, there were less than 10 women in the state who had the qualifications of being in practice for 10 years to go to the circuit court. That was just stunning. We were like, whoa. And you look through. And there were so the percentage of women, of course, African-Americans, I think it was you and me, Daphne, that might have been in black females, you and me and Wanda. And that and now we've come to a place where now I was looking at some of the stats on the judiciary here in Hawaii in terms of judges, and we're at a point now where there the percentage of women judges is that just about 48% across the state. So we've come an incredible way, just in a relatively short period of time. So I'm stunned almost to hear that there are we still have this notion their girls that still have this notion that there are things that they can't do. Oh, oh, that just we got to work harder. That's what that means. We just got more to do. I wow, Leslie, you got a lot to do over there. Yeah. Yeah. This is a wonderful show. And I hope you were able, Leslie, to get girlfriends an email address. We need to send this interview to her. But I want to go right to Daphne, because Daphne, you were probably one of the first ones that purchased a portrait from artist, Kimberly Keys. And she has this fabulous artwork that everyone in Hawaii needs to purchase from her. So definitely contact Kimberly Keys to get a portrait of Katanjay Brown Jackson. But I want to ask you a question, Daphne. How do you think she will get along with Clarence Thomas and the other justices? Well, I have a bunch of theories. I just want to comment just a little bit on what Sandra and Leslie said. Remember that Katanjay Brown Jackson talked about when she was in high school, her guidance counselor told her she should change her career and not go to law school. So look at what she did. Just ignore that lousy advice. It just stuck to her principles and went forward. As far as the other justices, I think that with regards to Clarence Thomas, I don't think he'll be very welcoming. And that's because his wife, Ginny Thomas, as people are now finding out, harbors a lot of negativity towards Democrats. And she certainly wanted Biden overthrown with the January 6. And Clarence Thomas sitting on the bench as a Supreme Court justice has in fact ruled on issues pertaining to the January 6 overthrow and has been the single dissenter of decisions which say that all emails and documents regarding the January 6 insurrection should be available to the United States Attorney. So I don't think they will get along very well. And I also don't know about the other justices. I do think perhaps Sonia Sotomayor and I think that they would probably get along a lot better. You know, it's going to be interesting to see. And everybody will keep their eyes open to see what happens. But I'm not so sure he would, just as times would be as welcoming as perhaps the others. I don't feel that, but I could be proven wrong. I believe in miracles. Anyway, attorney Matthews, what does her appointment mean to the US justice system? Oh, that's a great question. I think that to the US justice system, it says we are going to be looking for equal justice under the law. In order for there to be equal justice under the law, those that are making decisions have to accurately reflect America. And America is no longer this, you know, singular personhood, singular race, these things. It is a diverse America. It is an America where you can go to a public school and have, as Daphne told you, somebody say, you can't make it. So change and you stay steadfast and you not only get into Harvard, but you get into Harvard Law School and you go on and clerk for the very just and clerk for the very justice who seat you will be taking in his retirement. So I think that this is the first time that we've had a public defender that's been assigned, that's been confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. And being a former prosecutor myself, there's so much I don't have that lens because I wasn't a public defender. And I was communicating with some of my friends that are public defenders just about how this is going to be different. You know, when we see things about how is police brutality impacting people just recently, another young black man executed by the police, well, we're going to see, I hope, opinions that reflect accurately reflect what is happening here in America, you know, and that's a diverse America that's an ever changing in America. And that's an America where we truly are seeking equal justice under the law. That's what it says right there. And that's what we're pushing for. And I think even in her, she was very careful, because, you know what, as I watched this, some of these senators just ask an eye and questions that had nothing to do with her appointment. But because she's overly qualified, she held herself to a higher standard. And she knows that some of the things they were asking her about will come before her as that level headedness, that steadfastness, that good judicial temperament will be great as we seek equal justice under the law. And we'll just be able to see this happen. I can't wait. I'm so excited about this. I want to come and ask you, Judge Sims, and then I want to come and speak again with Attorney Barbie Wooten. Do you think President Biden will appoint another African American to the Supreme Court? I can't speak for him. And I don't know. I think what I do know, what I would like to, I wanted to kind of follow up on a comment that, you know, Lesley had made. And I think what I think is also important in terms of what her role is, is that while I think it's important to know that that we have a black woman on the Supreme Court, it's not a quote, get out of jail free card. It's just to me, a lens in which you do the law and in which you view the Constitution and ensuring, and I think that's going to be continuous, ensuring that we compel this country to live up to the principles for which it has been enunciated. That hasn't been happening. And we know that. I mean, we see, you know, we see all these, well, I'm not going to comment on the people, but we see where those standards have not been adhered to at all and are minimized in so many areas. And so that's really what when we talk about this lens that you're seeing things through I think the importance of her background is making certain that we're seeing things through that lens of applying, like Lesley said, equal justice under law because she believes it. She's lived it. She's lived it in her practice. She's lived it in her personal life. She's lived it on the bench when she's made decisions and whole business about the sentencing was just, that's a whole another hour discussion on that because it was so unfair and inappropriate and unnecessary and not at all indicative of what the role of a judge is. And she wisely, wisely chose not to engage in those useless debates. And they weren't even debates because it didn't make sense. But I digress. Total class sophistication. Grace, we can go on and on. Yeah. Barbie Wooten. Why has it taken so long to have an African American female on the Supreme Court? That's because our country, unfortunately, was founded on racism and slavery. Okay. It's at sexism. The Constitution as originally written was only for white men of privilege. So even if you were a poor white man, you couldn't vote. If you didn't own property, you couldn't vote. Eventually all white men got to vote. Eventually they had the 13th Amendment after the Civil War, the big war and African American males were finally able to vote. But then there was the Black Coase and Jim Crow, which there's voter fraud even today still lingering, which was a part of slavery just in French. And then the women had to get another amendment in 1920s to allow them to vote. And so there's a deep history of slavery, of racism, of sexism. And so now I think this is a healing, frankly, by placing her on the Supreme Court, the highest court of the United States. Our country is able to finally breathe a little. Yeah. And we're including more people than we did. It's making our country a much better country. So other people can't say, well, you can't talk about our country because look at your country, which a lot of people did when I would travel, they said, well, you can't say this. But now we can say, well, look, we have an African American female on the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land. And where it used to be, well, frankly, she's first in this country was a 1776. So that's what it really means to me. I look forward to her decisions. And you asked earlier of Judge Sims whether or not President Biden will appoint another African American to venture. And here's my answer. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, once we asked the question, how many women judges would be necessary before you? There's parody on the Supreme Court. And she said all of them. Nine. So I say the same thing. Yes, Biden can appoint more African Americans. And other people too, other people as well, Native Americans, Asian Americans, I mean, you know, make it more inclusive. Okay. So, you know, we've got to have a part two, but I want to end in with this with Leslie and maybe the other ladies can chime in. Let's talk about Black Joy. Let's talk about Cory Booker's impassioned speech. Nobody's going to steal that joy. Nobody's taken that away from me. I cried and I loved it. Let's talk about that. I mean, cry, like, like, not just like a cry, but that ugly cry. You have to get something out. And I've got to tell you, Black Joy is a real thing. And when they couldn't come for her qualifications, because let's be honest, she's overly qualified to sit on that bench. When they couldn't come for her family or her anything else. And when they tried to comfort her in her sentencing decisions, which she so accurately turned back on Congress and said, you all are the ones that enact the legislation that allows us to do and not allow us to do what we need to do. For our Black men to step in and have our back was amazing. Because I've got to be honest. I woke up at 4 a.m. the first day to watch. It's like, whoa, I'm ready. But it got to a point where you just couldn't watch it anymore, because you saw the overt racism, the overt sexism, the overt misogyny that was happening. But then you saw Cory Booker say, nobody's going to steal this moment for me. And so that's what I want us to see in the face of adversity. Nobody is going to steal this from me. So to that little girl that I saw a couple of years ago outside of the courthouse, don't let anybody steal this from me. To the people that'll continue to come to my trailblazers who I'm sitting with them. Thank you. We're not going to let anybody steal our joy. Exactly. I love that. Exactly. And in closing, I want to thank, oh, well, I guess maybe maybe the time these people are calling us now to book an appointment here. Anyway, in closing, I want to thank you, Judge Sandra Sims and Attorney Daphne Barbie Wooten and less Attorney Leslie Matthews. And in the poetic words of Dr. Maya Angelou, I do so now while bringing the gifts my ancestors gave. I am the dream and the hope of the slave. On behalf of Think Tech Hawaii and Sister Power, I am your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Mahalo.