The Duchess of Sussex has weighed in on President Joe Biden’s pick of Ketanji Brown Jackson as Supreme Court Justice – after facing calls she should be stripped of her royal title for meddling in US politics.
Meghan Markle, 40, who is currently living in her $14 million mansion in California, has been increasingly vocal about politics in the US having stepped back from royal duty last year.
Over the weekend, the mother-of-two spoke to Anita Hill for URL media about the nomination of Judge Jackson, saying: ‘Judge Jackson’s nomination has opened new ground for women’s representation at the highest level of a judicial system that for too long has tilted against the very community she hails from.
‘For the millions of young women who will rightfully find inspiration from this moment, let’s remind ourselves that Black achievement is something that exists not just today or yesterday, and not just in moments of celebration, but as a fabric woven into the entire chronicle of the American story.’
Anita said the pair had ‘recently connected’ and said there was ‘a measure of parallelism given her experience navigating uncharted territory as a Black woman.’
The duchess’s latest intervention heightens speculation that she sees herself in a political position in the future, like her heroines Angelina Jolie and Amal Clooney.
The Duchess of Sussex, 40, has weighed in with her opinion of President Joe Biden’s pick of Ketanji Brown Jackson as Supreme Court Justice – after facing calls she should be stripped of her royal title for meddling in US politics
Over the weekend, the mother-of-two spoke to Anita Hill about the nomination of Judge Jackson by President Biden
It is not the first time the Duchess has weighed in on politics in the US.
Last year, she made a series of calls for compulsory paid family leave in the US, including in her first major TV appearance since her notorious tell-all with Oprah Winfrey.
In a soft-soap interview with chat show host Ellen DeGeneres in November, Meghan told her close friend she would do ‘everything’ in her power to change US policy for millions of Americans.
The duchess also caused controversy by cold-calling US senators on their private phones and using her royal title to urge them to vote in favour of paid leave. Previously she wrote a letter to the US Congress asking them to considering making paid leave law.
Sources previously said the Duchess was eyeing 2024, when President Joe Biden will be 82 and deciding whether he wants to run for a second term
Republican Representative Jason Smith of Missouri condemned Meghan for interfering in American politics, and even suggested she should be stripped of her title to stop her using it to gain political leverage.
Meghan told The Ellen Show: ‘I think that people truly forget, or don’t even know that in this country, it’s one of the only six countries in the entire world and the only wealthy nation in the entire world that does not mandate and have a federal paid leave programme.
‘Everybody knows, especially if you have had a child and even if you haven’t, you know how hard it is and how critical it is in those first few weeks if not months to be together as a family.
‘And the fact that we don’t offer that here is something that now as a mom of two, I will do everything that I can to make sure that we can implement that for people.’
Last year, she made a series of calls for compulsory paid family leave in the US, including in her first major TV appearance since her notorious tell-all with Oprah Winfrey
Meghan previously insisted she is not playing politics by calling for paid family leave for all, which she says is a ‘humanitarian issue’, during an appearance at the New York Times DealBook summit.
Speaking to Andrew Sorkin, who edits DealBook, the Times’ financial newsletter, and appeared alongside Mellody Hobson, co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based investment firm, she said: ‘I don’t see this as a political issue frankly.
‘There is a precedent among my husband’s family, the royal family, of not having any involvement in politics. From my standpoint, this is a humanitarian issue.’
In a October 20 letter to US congressmen Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, Meghan wrote: ‘I’m not an elected official, and I’m not a politician. I’m writing to you at this deeply important time – as a mom – to advocate for paid leave.’
The extraordinary 1,030-word letter asked the two Democratic leaders to consider her plea ‘on behalf of my family, Archie and Lili and Harry’.
The duchess depicted humble beginnings, saying that her family struggled when she was young – despite her well-documented middle class upbringing in which she attended private primary and secondary schools on her Emmy award-winning lighting director father’s $200,000-a-year salary.
Markle, pictured above with Prince Harry and her first born Archie, made a rare political statement last year
And last year, rumours circulating in Westminster suggested Meghan planned to use the furore over her interview with Oprah to launch a political career which could take her all the way to the White House.
One senior Labour figure – a veteran of Tony Blair’s Downing Street administration with strong links to Washington – claimed to The Mail on Sunday that Meghan was networking among senior Democrats with a view to building a campaign and fundraising teams for a tilt at the US Presidency.
A source close to the Duchess declined to comment, but the couple have made little secret of their political beliefs.
During the US election she and Prince Harry levelled a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump by urging voters to ‘reject hate speech’, which a spokesperson for the couple described as ‘a call for decency’. Trump himself declared that he was ‘not a fan’ of Meghan.
And, a friend of the Duchess told Vanity Fair magazine that one of the reasons she did not give up her American citizenship when she married into the Royal Family was to allow her to keep open the option of entering Washington politics.
US constitutional experts responded that she would have to renounce her title if she wanted to hold public office in the States, because it would cut across the US oath of allegiance.
Buckingham Palace tried to distance the Royal Family from the remarks made during the US election by issuing a statement saying that ‘the Duke is not a working member of the Royal Family’ and describing his comments as ‘made in a personal capacity’.
President Joe Biden on Friday nominated federal judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first black woman selected to serve on the bench
Biden shakes hands with Jackson after announcing her nomination to the Supreme Court
The source added that the presumption was that the Duchess was eyeing 2024, when President Joe Biden will be 82 and deciding whether he wants to run for a second term.
Meghan’s friends have previously encouraged speculation about her political ambitions – describing her rise from modest beginnings as ‘the embodiment of the American dream’.
Her latest comments come as President Biden said he nominated Judge Jackson to unite the country despite being accused of undermining her professional achievements by announcing his nominee had to be a black woman.
Speaking to online interviewer Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday, Biden listed his reasons for nominating Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
‘Number one, I committed, two years ago, that if I got elected president, I would name, if I had an opportunity, I would name the first African-American woman to the Supreme Court because I think the court should look like the country,’ he said.
‘The point is that I want to bring the country together.’
Despite his hopes, Biden has received criticism for basing his decision off race and sex, with U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham saying Jackson’s nomination ‘means the radical left has won President Biden over yet again.’
When asked to comment about Graham’s statement, Biden lamented that the nation was being split by politics.
‘Unfortunately, we’ve become so politicized in this country,’ he said. ‘I wish it would be a different Lindsey used to be a close friend.
‘I just wish they’d give it a chance. There’s no basis for that assertion. But. It’s what it is.’
In his push for her nomination, Biden pointed to Jackson’s unique qualifications – she would be the high court’s first former public defender – and that she has been previously confirmed by the Senate for the federal bench, garnering Republican votes in the Senate for that position.
‘She served both in public service as a federal public defender, a federal public defender and in private law practice as an accomplished lawyer with a prestigious law firm,’ the president said on Friday.
Yet despite her impressive qualifications, many believed the nomination process was tainted by Biden’s vow two years ago and that it undermined Jackson’s extensive career.
Former presidential candidate Ben Carson said he was disappointed with the process and what it would mean for Jackson.
‘People will assume that she got the position because of her color and not because of her qualifications,’ Carson told the Daily Signal. ‘That may not be the case, but that will be a natural assumption.’
A Twitter user with the handle name Carpet Braggers wrote echoed Carson’s sentiments, writing, ‘Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be a diversity hire if she is confirmed.
‘POTUS nominated her first and foremost because of the color of her skin rather than her qualifications. Her tenure will always be tainted with this fact.’
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