In a 1996 Harvard Law Review article, Ketanji Brown Jackson, then a law school student, noted the "climate of fear, hatred, and revenge" in which policies dealing with sex offenders are formulated. Before Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing began this week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R‒Mo.) objected to that observation, then proceeded to demonstrate its accuracy.
Hawley's misrepresentation of Jackson's record in this area was typical of the criticism leveled at Supreme Court nominees, which often involves inflammatory, acontextual citations of a candidate's statements and decisions. But it also illustrated the difficulty of having a rational conversation about the legal treatment of sex offenders, a broad and diverse category that extends far beyond the "child predators" on whom Hawley focused.
