Trump's deputy AG nominee wouldn't say if Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided

(Image credit: The Associated Press)

published 11 April 2019

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."

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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

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.