Halloran Sage attorney Angela Robinson appeared on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes on February 3, 2022. Angela is interviewed about her Washington Post piece, “History shows why it’s time for a Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.” She appears with Maya Wiley, a civil rights attorney and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division for the Southern District of New York.
The video clip may be seen below, and segments of the interview text follow.
Chris Hayes: “Professor Robinson, I wonder if you can make the case on the merits that you do in your op ed about why this is an important time to do precisely as Joe Biden’s doing.”
Angela Robinson: “Well this is a demonstration of Black women excellence in the legal profession, and especially in the judiciary. It’s 150 years in the making. The first Black woman lawyer was 150 years ago, and it’s taken this long for Black women to have the opportunity to sit on the highest court in the nation. So, this is time to demonstrate the excellence that we have.”
She continues later in the segment, “…93% of the Justices who have sat on the Supreme Court have been white men, and they are coming from an increasingly small pool. It’s kind of interesting and ironic to me that when the only Justices were white men, we pulled from many different sectors. We pulled from executive branch, legislative branch, we took people who had state court service. But as soon as we started getting a little bit more diverse, we started shrinking the pool within which we could select Justices. And that’s why this appointment is so exciting. Because no matter who it is, they are going to bring some diverse background and some much-needed life experience.”