Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Ketanji Brown Jackson, an ethical justice, recuses herself from the Harvard case because she once served on its board.
Ketanji Brown Jackson: “As I understand your no race-conscious admissions rule,” a white legacy applicant and a Black applicant whose ancestors were enslaved “would have a dramatically different opportunity to tell their family story & to have them count”.
The United States will make another historic event today as Ketanji Brown Jackson is set to be sworn in as the first Black woman as the 116th Supreme Court justice and the first Black woman to serve on the high court.
US President Joe Biden nominated Jackson in February fulfilling a campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court and the 51-year-old will be sworn in on Thursday at 12 noon.
“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, but we’ve made it! We’ve made it — all of us,” Jackson said in remarks at a White House event the day after the Senate vote.
“I have dedicated my career to public service because I love this country and our Constitution and the rights that make us free,” Jackson also said.
Most new justices take a bit of time before they start to really get up to speed. Even if their votes matter, new justices generally take a while before their presences are really felt on the court. As I wrote Monday, though, the court’s current makeup — and the cases the justices are scheduled to hear — could lead Jackson on a different path.
Thus far, she has taken that different path.
From the first oral argument Monday, in a Clean Water Act case, Jackson was participating fully — raising significant questions about the meaning of “adjacency” and engaging in back-and-forth discussions with the lawyers appearing before the court.
Jackson has been confirmed since April, when the Senate voted 53 to 47 on her nomination. It was anticipated she would replace 83-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer — whom she served as an assistant shed graduated from Harvard Law School in 1996 — when he stepped down.
Breyer’s retirement will be effective today. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has made it clear in her first days on the Supreme Court that she is not just any new justice. She is a justice who is ready to do what needs to be done.
I have followed the court closely for most of my life. I remember asking to keep the TV on during dinner to watch Clarence Thomas’ confirmation vote in 1991. I was in middle school. I have closely followed or covered the first terms of the seven other justices, all of whom took the bench after I graduated from law school in 2005.
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