If confirmed, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will become the first-ever Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. That matters. President Joe Biden should make no apologies for promising to nominate someone of a particular background; his pledge to build a more representative court is consistent with Democratic and Republican presidents before him. But what matters more than her sex and color is her integrity, the caliber of her mind, her judicial philosophy and her temperament. Here, Jackson is exemplary.
Some lament yet another justice with a Harvard or Yale law degree. But Jackson is a public school daughter of two teachers, including a dad who studied nights to become an attorney. Her brother was a cop. Hers has not been a cloistered life.
Her legal career has been astonishingly diverse, including clerkships for three federal judges (including Justice Stephen Breyer, whose seat she may now fill); stints with top-tier firms; time helping lead the U.S. Sentencing Commission, during which it rightly reduced what had been overly harsh guidelines for crack cocaine; and, critically, three years as a federal public defender. That she would be the first former defense attorney for the indigent on the high court speaks volumes, and would inject a healthy corrective perspective into deliberations on how to balance public safety imperatives and the rights of the accused.
Deciding cases is far from the only way to establish one’s bona fides as a member of The Nine, but Jackson’s 11 years as a federal judge — in the district court since 2013, and on the second-most-important appeals panel in the nation, the D.C. Circuit, since last year — puts her pre-SCOTUS judicial experience in line with that of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Amy Coney Barrett served just three years on a federal bench before her nomination; John Roberts, two years; Clarence Thomas, a year and a half; Elena Kagan, not a day.
This means senators need not guess at her judicial approach. They have an extensive record to scrutinize.
When Biden nominated Jackson to the appeals court last June, three Republicans joined 50 Democrats in voting yea. Dare Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski change their minds on her worthiness to serve?
