The day sanity made an appearance on Capitol Hill

"MAN, noun plural men. [Heb. species, kind, image, similitude.] 1. Mankind; the human race; the whole species of human beings; beings distinguished from all other animals by the powers of reason and speech, as well as by their shape and dignified aspect. 'Os homini sublime dedit.'"

"WOMAN, noun plural women. [a compound of womb and man.] 1. The female of the human race, grown to adult years."

– Webster's 1828 dictionary

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, asked a very serious question during Ketanji Brown Jackson's Suprem Court justice confirmation hearings March 22, 2022, before the Senate's Judiciary Committee proceeding.

"Can you provide a definition for the word 'woman'?" Blackburn asked Jackson.

"Can I provide a definition? No. I can't," she responded, after some hesitation.

Bdump-bump! It was one of the most seminal moments of the 21st century – a clarifyingly consequential, foolish minute of time that helped define the "reality" of this epoch.

Jackson refused to define the word "woman" on the second day of her confirmation hearings. Thank you, Marsha Blackburn. It was a high mark for the senator, and she made the most of it.

Here's how the exchange went:

"Do you agree that our schools should teach children that they can choose their gender?" Blackburn asked, after she read a quote from Jackson regarding Georgetown Day School, the private school on whose board Brown serves.

Jackson responded by noting that Georgetown Day School is private. When Blackburn pressed again, asking for the judge's opinion, Jackson said, "Senator, I'm not making comments about what schools can teach."

Blackburn then turned to quote the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who wrote the majority opinion in U.S. v. Virginia (1996), in which the high court struck down Virginia Military Institute's male-only admissions policy.

"Supposed inherent differences are no longer accepted as a ground for race or national origin classifications," Blackburn said, quoting Ginsburg. "Physical differences, between men and women, however, are enduring. The two sexes are not fungible. A community made up exclusively of one sex is different from a community composed of both."

"Do you agree with Justice Ginsburg that there are physical differences between men and women that are enduring?" the senator asked.

"Um, senator, respectfully, I am not familiar with that particular quote or case, so it's hard for me to comment," the judge responded.

"Do you interpret Justice Ginsburg's meaning of men and women as male and female?" Blackburn pressed. Jackson did not comment on the matter.

"Can you provide a definition for the word 'woman'?" the senator asked.

"Can I provide a definition?" Jackson responded. "I can't."

"You can't?" Blackburn asked.

"Not in this context. I'm not a biologist," the judge replied.

"Do you believe the meaning of the word woman is so unclear and controversial that you can't give me a definition?" Blackburn pressed.

"Senator, in my work as a judge, what I do is I address disputes. If there's a dispute about a definition, people make arguments, and I look at the law, and I decide," Jackson said.

Blackburn argued that "the fact that you can't give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education that we are hearing about.

"Just last week, an entire generation of young girls watched as our taxpayer-funded institutions permitted a biological man to compete [against] and beat a biological woman in the NCAA women's swimming championships," the senator added, referring to the controversial case of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. "What message do you think this sends to girls?"

The judge responded: "Senator, I'm not sure what message that sends. If you're asking me about the legal issues related to it, those are topics that are being hotly discussed, as you say, and could come to the Court, so I'm not able to" address them.

This was more than a "teaching moment." It was a day when sanity came near in Washington. We need more of those if the United States of America is going to be saved. As we approach the one year anniversary of the day such clarity came to the U.S. Senate, it's more than worth revisiting – again and again.

Call it the time when Joe Biden's world was rocked – and when the Republicans recovered their senses.

It was Blackburn's finest hour.

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