Spotlight on the Incredible Life and Career of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson made history on April 7, 2022, when she became the first Black woman jurist—and the first public defender—ever confirmed to the United States Supreme Court. The honor came after a confrontational and deeply racist series of confirmation hearings in the US Congress.
But nothing can tarnish the meaning of the achievement for Judge—soon to be Justice—Jackson. And nothing can take away the new feelings of pride and hope felt throughout America's Black community, including among the many Black children who now see themselves written into Justice Jackson’s story. She has said that some of the most meaningful letters of congratulations and encouragement she has received have come from schoolchildren.
Enjoy this spotlight on her life and career.
Significance of Her Appointment
Noting the deep significance of the event, President Joe Biden told the nation on April 8 that Jackson’s appointment to the High Court marked a moment of real change in the country, one in which historically marginalized people “can see themselves in others.” From the nation’s founding up until Jackson’s confirmation, only five women and two Black men have served on the Supreme Court, out of the total of 115 justices.
Early Life
Ketanji Onyika (her parents chose the names for their connotation of “lovely one” in West African speech) Brown was born in Washington, DC, in 1970, the daughter of two high school teachers who themselves had attended segregated schools. It’s also a big milestone for African Americans when a member of the highest court in the land has a traditionally Black-sounding name.
As a child, the young Ketanji sat with her coloring books next to her father as he studied to become a lawyer. She has said that this was the experience that led to her own choice of career.
As a high school student in Miami, Florida, she excelled as class president and traveled nationwide as a champion on her top-performing debate team. One of those trips took her to Harvard University, inspiring her to apply there. In 1992, she earned her Harvard undergraduate degree magna cum laude.
Before entering Harvard Law School, she performed in theater productions, worked for TIME magazine, and interned with a public defender program serving residents of Harlem. She edited Harvard’s law review and married her husband, Patrick Jackson, the year she graduated, cum laude.
Career
Ketanji Brown Jackson went on to clerk for two federal judges, then for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, whom she now replaces on the court at his retirement. Her background in the practice of law is wider than those of most of the current justices.
After working in private firms, she served the federal justice system as a public defender, a US sentencing commissioner, a judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia, and most recently a judge on the DC Circuit Court, one of the most powerful and often-cited of the circuits in the US Court of Appeals system.
Personal Life
Jackson and her husband are the parents of two daughters. Jackson has credited much of her success to the constant support and encouragement of her husband, who is a white surgeon and a member of a family with generations of Harvard graduates. He and their daughters, her parents, and her wide network of friends, mentors, and extended family figured prominently in her speech in front of the American people after her confirmation.
Supreme Court Confirmation
Jackson has faced many obstacles in her life due to others’ perceptions of what a young Black woman should be able to do. These span her life from the time a high school guidance counselor told her not to set her sights on Harvard, all the way to her confirmation hearings.
Despite the fact that she is universally respected as a fair, thoughtful, and non-partisan judge, one Republican senator after another grilled her with sometimes thinly veiled disdain. Additionally, wild, unfounded accusations involving the current bogeyman of “critical race theory” were flung about.
Several of the opposing senators grossly distorted Jackson’s record to accuse her of putting the rights of pedophiles above the cause of justice for their victims. In fact, her rulings in these cases were in line with standard sentencing guidelines. Some these senators also implied that Jackson was unqualified, despite her being better prepared to serve on the High Court than many of the white men who have occupied those seats throughout history.
Making History
But none of it stuck. Jackson showed the country just how good and experienced a jurist she is. She moved many with her personal story of a life devoted to family, faith, hard work, and education.
At the vote that culminated in her confirmation, Republican Senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski joined all 50 Democrats in helping her make history. In a disgraceful show of partisanship that can have been meant only the cameras, other Republicans walked out of the Senate chambers instead of joining the standing ovation for the new justice.
“We’ve made it, we’ve made it, all of us,” Jackson said at the press conference the day after her confirmation. She emphasized what her membership on the Court means for generations of African Americans, those present today and those generations gone, by quoting poet Maya Angelou.
“Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave,” she said as eyes teared around the country, and hearts broke with heavy joy in the knowledge of all that had come before, “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”