Page 14 - aruba-today-20240905

A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Thursday 5 sepTember 2024
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson discusses new memoir, ‘Lovely

One,’ at Apollo Theater

By HILLEL ITALIE ry. “Lovely One” often reads
AP National Writer as a kind of lesson, or road-
NEW YORK (AP) — In one of map, what Jackson calls in
her first public appearanc- the preface “a testament
es on behalf of her newly for young women, people
published memoir, “Lovely of color, and strivers every-
One,” Supreme Court Jus- where, especially those who
tice Ketanji Brown Jackson nourished outsized ambi-
didn’t make a lot of news, tions and believe with stub-
but she did make a little his- born faith in the possibility of
tory: She can add her name achieving them.”
to James Brown, Stevie Won- She endured aggressive
der and Smokey Robinson questions from Republican
among others as someone senators during her confir-
who has sung at the Apollo mation hearings and she
Theater. Reminiscing Tues- currently serves on one of
day night with interviewer the most conservative and
Gayle King about her love divisive courts in U.S. history,
for musical theater, Jack- casting dissenting votes on
son ably crooned a few such landmark rulings as the
lines from “The Wiz” “When granting of partial legal im-
I think of home, I think of a munity for former presidents.
place/Where there’s love But Jackson avoided nam-
overflowing” and threw in a Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is seen after her formal investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court, ing names beyond noting
in Washington, Sept. 30, 2022.
favorite chant from “School- Associated Press that Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas
house Rock” “I’m just a bill, Republican, attended law
yes I’m only a bill. And I’m versity, her interracial mar- she had once clerked. judiciary. school with her or pointing

sitting here on Capitol Hill.” riage to Dr. Patrick Jackson Jackson explained Tuesday “I remember this kinship with fingers in her book, and re-
The capacity audience at who was in the audience that she had been interest- this fantastic woman,” Jack- sisted Tuesday night when
the famed Harlem perfor- Tuesday night and her rise ed since she was a girl, when son told King. “I thought, King pressed her to cite
mance center cheered and through the court system, she and her father, Johnny ‘Why stop at law? I could even one justice she had
sang along. culminating in 2022 when Brown, would sit together at be a federal judge.” clashed with.
King had promised and she became the first Black the dining room table, she Jackson’s book, 405 pages, When King asked if justices
kept her promise to focus on woman on the Supreme with coloring books and he combines family history, socialized, Jackson respond-
Jackson’s personal story and Court. “A roaring ocean” in with law books he was study- legal history and personal ed, “There are opportunities
not on the law. Jackson dis- her ears is how she remem- ing at the time. history as she narrates her to have lunch.”
cussed her childhood in Mi- bered the call from President Her ambition grew in middle own improbable journey a Jackson spoke of remaining
ami, the origins of her name Joe Biden, asking her if she school after she learned Black woman rising to the calm during the confirma-
(It means “lovely one,” the would agree to fill the va- about Constance Baker highest court in a country tion hearings, thanks to her
book’s title), her undergrad- cancy left by retiring Justice Motley, the first Black wom- where segregation was le- resolve, her preparation and
uate years at Harvard Uni- Stephen Breyer, for whom an to serve on the federal gal well into the 20th centu- to political realities. q

A prosecutor asks for charges to be reinstated against Alec

Baldwin in the ‘Rust’ case

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A dismiss an involuntary man- pher on the set of a West- udice, meaning it can’t be win’s lawyers alleged that
prosecutor has asked a slaughter charge against ern movie, according to revived once appeals of they “buried” it and filed a
New Mexico judge to re- Alec Baldwin in the fatal a court filing made public the decision are exhaust- motion to dismiss the case.
consider the decision to shooting of a cinematogra- Wednesday. ed. Movie armorer Hannah
Special prosecutor Kari Baldwin, the lead actor and Gutierrez-Reed is serving
Morrissey said there were co-producer on “Rust,” was an 18-month sentence on
insufficient facts to sup- pointing a gun at cinema- a conviction for involuntary
port the ruling in state dis- tographer Halyna Hutchins manslaughter. She was ac-
trict court and no violation during a rehearsal when cused of flouting standard
of Baldwin’s due process it went off, killing her and safety protocols and miss-
rights. wounding director Joel ing multiple opportunities to
Judge Mary Marlowe Som- Souza. Baldwin has said he detect forbidden live am-
mer dismissed the case pulled back the hammer munition on set. Assistant

against Baldwin in July but not the trigger and the director and safety coordi-
halfway through a trial revolver fired. nator David Halls pleaded

based on the withholding The case-ending evidence no contest to negligent use
of evidence by police and was ammunition that was of a deadly weapon.
prosecutors from the de- brought into the sheriff’s It has never been offi-
fense in the 2021 shooting office in March by a man cially determined who
Actor Alec Baldwin, right, hugs his defense attorney Alex Spiro
after District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer threw out the of cinematographer Hal- who said it could be relat- brought the live rounds that
involuntary manslaughter case, July 12, 2024, in Santa Fe, N.M., yna Hutchins on the set of ed to Hutchins’ killing. Pros- killed Hutchins to the set,
for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins the film “Rust.” ecutors said they deemed though prosecutors allege
during filming of the Western movie “Rust.” The charge against Bald- the ammo unrelated and that Gutierrez-Reed was
Associated Press win was dismissed with prej- unimportant, while Bald- responsible.q