President Trump's nominee for deputy attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, was given multiple opportunities on Wednesday to say whether he thought the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided, but he turned down every one.
During his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) asked Rosen about both Brown v. Board of Education, which found racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, and Roe v. Wade, which established a woman's legal right to an abortion.
On Roe v. Wade, Rosen said he "would agree" that "it's the precedent of the Supreme Court for better than 40 years now and unless and until that changes, it's the law." When pressed, Rosen said he didn't have anything else to say. Regarding Brown v. Board of Education, Rosen said he didn't think "it would be a productive exercise for me to go through the ... thousands of Supreme Court opinions and say which ones are right and which ones are wrong."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
After being pushed by Blumenthal to answer, Rosen continued to deflect, saying he has "views about lots of Supreme Court cases, but I'm not being nominated for this position to be the solicitor general nor a judge and I think in this context the point I'm trying to make is that, whatever the law is, whether it's a decision I would favor or disfavor, I see it as the role of the Department of Justice to uphold the law such as it is, unless Congress or the courts change it." Watch his exchange with Blumenthal below. Catherine Garcia
-
Political cartoons for October 25Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include hospital bill trauma, Independence Day, and more
-
Roasted squash and apple soup recipeThe Week Recommends Autumnal soup is full of warming and hearty flavours
-
Ukraine: Donald Trump pivots againIn the Spotlight US president apparently warned Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Vladimir Putin’s terms or face destruction during fractious face-to-face
-
Penn wipes trans swimmer records in deal with Trumpspeed read The University of Pennsylvania will bar transgender students from its women's sports teams and retroactively strip a trans female swimmer of her titles
-
Supreme Court may bless church-run charter schoolsSpeed Read The case is 'one of the biggest on church and state in a generation'
-
Harvard sues Trump over frozen grant moneySpeed Read The Trump administration withheld $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts after Harvard rejected its demands
-
Harvard loses $2.3B after rejecting Trump demandsspeed read The university denied the Trump administration's request for oversight and internal policy changes
-
USC under fire for canceling valedictorian speechSpeed Read Citing safety concerns, the university canceled a pro-Palestinian student's speech
-
Florida teachers can 'say gay' under settlementspeed read The state reached a settlement with challengers of the 2022 "Don't Say Gay" education law
-
Biden administration to forgive $39B in student loan debt for 800K borrowersSpeed Read
-
Advocacy groups challenge Harvard's legacy admissions policySpeed Read
