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A Louder Voice for Liberals J
Biden’s historic nominee will make the U.S. Supreme Court more polarized, warn experts. BY JOHN GIZZI
udge ketanji brown jackson, president joe Biden’s first nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, is a good bet to be confirmed by the Sen- ate to succeed retiring liberal Justice Stephen
Breyer, for whom she once served as clerk. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be plain sailing
through the Senate for what will likely be the first Black woman to sit on the court. Jackson’s nomination was predicted by Newsmax
after she was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia a year ago. Her confirmation would not change the politics of
the Supreme Court, which will retain a 6-3 conservative majority, including three new justices appointed by for- mer President Donald Trump.
But the political website Five Thirty Eight, which is
owned by ABC News, wrote recently that she’s likely to be more liberal than Breyer was, and less willing to com- promise with the court’s conservatives. “That could mean the court — like every other politi-
cal institution these days — is about to become even more polarized,” according to the website. Jackson seemed destined for the Supreme Court: a
Harvard Law graduate and editor of its Law Review, membership on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, much published legal analysis, and stints on both the U.S. Dis- trict Court and Court of Appeals. Even her brief stint on the D.C. Court of Appeals
pointed to an “upgrade” to the Supreme Court. Known as the “Second Highest Court in the Land,” it has pro- duced three of the current nine justices on the highest court — and was also the launching pad for judges Anto- nin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and past Chief Justices Frederick Vinson and Warren Burger. But many Republicans in the evenly split Senate have not forgotten the brass-knuckled treatment of Judge
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51
Born: Washington, D.C. Grew up in Miami. Family: Father a lawyer. Mother, high school principal. Husband, Patrick Jackson, a surgeon, whom she met at Harvard. They have two daughters Talia, 21, and Leila, 17.
10 NEWSMAX | APRIL 2022
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is a relative of Jackson by marriage. His wife’s sister, Dana, is married to William Jackson, the twin brother of Jackson’s husband. Ryan testified in support of her nomination to the district court.
Education: Palmetto Senior High, Pinecrest, Florida. Student body president and member of the debate team. Harvard University and Law School.
She credits high school for giving her “the self-confidence that can sometimes be quite
dificult for women and minorities to develop at an early age. Of all the various things that I’ve done, it was my experience as a competitive speaker that taught me how to lean in, despite the obstacles.”
CAREER
1996–2014 Worked in private practice, clerked for
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