Confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
On Thursday, April 7th, the United States Senate voted to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve as the 116th Justice of the Supreme Court. She will make US history as the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. Judge Jackson was confirmed by a 53-to-47 vote, with three Republicans voting for her in addition to all 50 Democratic senators.
Before her nomination, she was a district judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2021 and subsequently served on the United States Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Jackson also served as a public defender, an attorney assigned to defend people in criminal cases who are financially unable to hire their own counsel. Jackson worked as a public defender for four Guantanamo Bay detainees, helping them file habeas corpus petitions. Many Republicans have tried to discredit her work as a public defender, accusing her of calling the United States government and previous president Bush “war criminals.” Judge Jackson did state that the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay violated federal law, but she never referred to anyone as a war criminal. Guantanamo Bay has been criticized by many as a failure both legally and morally, using both physical violence and condemnable interrogation techniques on detainees. Republicans underscored the fact that America would be “safer with fewer terrorists,” and while Jackson agreed, she also emphasized that all Americans have the right to have their constitutional rights protected. Her work as a public defender has exposed her to experiences that will surely bring new perspectives to the Court.
During her confirmation hearing in March, she was also subject to contentious questioning, again by Republicans. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) pestered her with questions about children's books based on critical race theory. He asked her, “Do you agree with this book that is being taught to kids that babies are racist?” Sen. Ted Cruz’s questions were in reference to the books on race being used in Georgetown Day School’s curriculum, where she is a board member. Sen. Ted Cruz, along with other Republican senators, tried to paint the narrative that as a supporter of the education of Critical Race Theory, Judge Jackson has a “personal hidden agenda to incorporate critical race ideas” into the US legal systems. She responded by saying “I've never studied critical race theory, and I've never used it. It doesn't come up in the work that I do as a judge."
Republicans also focused on and criticized her record as a judge when sentencing child pornography cases, specifically in reference to Judge Jackson’s decision to send 19-year-old Wesley Hawkins to prison for an uncharacteristically short three months on a non-production child pornography charge (federal guidelines usually call for an 8 to 10-year sentence for a child pornography charge). Jackson stated that she was persuaded by many arguments made by the defense, thus leading her to reduce Hawkins’s sentencing to three months. Democrats and former judges have criticized Republican senators who continually struck her on this issue for missing context on both sentencing guidelines and the case itself. Ohio State University law professor Douglas Berman came to her defense and stated that Judge Jackson’s reduction for sentences concerning child pornography “is almost identical to the national average reduction,” thus it is unfair to paint the narrative that she is “soft on crime”.
Contrastingly, Democrats applauded her for her work as both a public defender and a district judge. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a tweet after her nomination, “Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be a justice who will uphold the Constitution and protect the rights of all Americans, including the voiceless and the vulnerable.” Judge Jackson's expertise and experience as a public defender and experiences as a Black female judge are additional proof that she will bring new perspectives to the court's typically homogenous past. She will be the first justice since Justice Thurgood Marshall to have experience as a public defender.
Judge Jackson’s confirmation to the supreme court is a milestone for President Joe Biden: during his 2020 presidential election campaign, he promised to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. The confirmation of a Black woman to the highest court in the US is a major achievement for the country as a whole. Judge Jackson’s rise to the Supreme Court exhibits the progress America has made in Black female representation and has profoundly touched many Black women in America.
Judge Jackson will serve starting October, replacing retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. During the next term, the Court is set to encounter major cases on affirmative action, voting, gay rights, and abortion rights, more specifically Roe v. Wade.