A demand to define ‘woman’ injects gender politics into Jackson’s confirmation hearings.
Republicans have spent hours this week trying to portray Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as an extremist on issues of race and an apologist for child sexual abusers.
Late Tuesday, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, added another social issue to the list of cultural grievances the G.O.P.
is foisting upon her in her confirmation hearings: gender — specifically, what makes a woman a woman. Transgender rights are dominating outrage on the right, after the Republican governors of Indiana and Utah vetoed bans on the participation of biological males in women’s sports in recent days and a transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas, won a collegiate swimming championship.
Ms. Blackburn brought that swimmer up late Tuesday as Judge Jackson’s first day of questioning was coming to a close, then asked, “Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’?” As she and other judicial nominees before her have done regularly, Judge Jackson dodged the question as outside of her role on the bench, saying, “I’m not a biologist.” But Ms.
