Dear John,

Last week, President Biden affirmed his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. This nominee will fill the seat of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, who used his time on the court to champion our civil rights—especially the right to abortion.

We still have a ways to go: President Biden has to select his nominee, and then the Senate has to confirm his choice. But when I think about the women President Biden could nominate—the numerous brilliant, highly qualified Black lawyers around the country who could be the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court—I’m overwhelmed, in the best way.

This goes beyond representation—though for sure I’m thrilled to think of the Black girls who will never be confused about whether they can be on the Supreme Court or in the White House or in any place they dream. This nomination is about undoing generations of bias and under-representation that have kept Black women from interpreting the laws whose worst impacts are most likely faced by us, and other women of color.

Black women's impact on the laws of this country is too often unvalued and unheard, whether it's Ida B. Wells' crusade against lynching to the foundational civil rights work of Pauli Murray, which was built upon by household names like Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The last 50 years of law and civil rights activism would have been dramatically different if not for Kimberlé Crenshaw's pioneering analysis of intersectionality as a lens to understand the dual impacts of racism and sexism, Anita Hill's ongoing mission for workplace equality, and the tireless efforts of Stacey Abrams to defend our democracy.

On both ends of the legal system, the perspective of white men has been treated as the default, as if they and their life experience somehow endowed them—and only them—with the objectivity and insight needed to interpret, and benefit, from our laws.

But it’s past time for that to change. It couldn’t happen at a more critical moment.

Currently, the Supreme Court is stacked with Trump-appointed justices who are rushing to undo as many protections as they can—including Roe v. Wade. Should the Court ignore decades of precedents on abortion that Justice Breyer himself authored, it would be an injustice that will be felt most acutely by Black women, many of whom have led the charge against attempts by state lawmakers to control their bodies, lives, and futures. Who we put on the bench next is critical, and the staff at the National Women’s Law Center are ready for this fight.

From examining the record of each name on President Biden’s short list, to ensuring the Senate does its job and fairly considers the nominee without obstruction or delay, to celebrating when the nominee puts on those robes for the first time—our organization is built for this work.

So many of us are still reeling from illness, from loss and grief, from being pushed out of the workforce, from losing access to child care, and from being stretched to our breaking points.

But it is precisely in these most difficult of moments, though, when we need to remember the words of activist Mariame Kaba: “Hope is a discipline.” To hope is a choice, one that we will be making every day in this fight and beyond.

This moment—this is one to hope for. It’s historic, it’s pivotal, and it will bring about generational change—for all of us. Will you join us?

In solidarity,

Fatima
she/her/hers
President & CEO
National Women's Law Center