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President Biden Nominates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson For The Supreme Court

The front-runner was indeed the pick

Matt Bernius
12

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[Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson]

Ending weeks of speculation, President Biden has nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Stephen Breyer. The White House website launched a page this morning to make the case for Judge Jackson. Jackson has long been considered a front-runner for this position. Other front runners had included Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was pushed by Representative James Clyburn. Clyburn was considered to be crucial to turning around Biden’s election prospects ahead of the South Carolina primary. It was also Representative Clyburn who appears to have pressured Biden to commit to nominating a Black Woman to the Supreme Court.

There is little left to say about Judge Jackson. Our own HarvardLaw92 has endorsed her candidacy and believes her to be an outstanding jurist. As someone interested in criminal legal system reform, I think she is the best candidate we could hope for and brings with her experience as a defender (the first one on the Supreme Court bench in over three decades) and with sentencing reform.

The only question that remains is how much of a fight Republicans in the senate will put up against her. However, as they remain the minority party, there is little that they can actually do to slow down this nomination based on the 2017 GOP-led rule change that lowered the threshold for Supreme Court nominations to a simple majority.

The only question that remains is if she gets any crossover votes.

Update: A number of Republicans have already started to paint Justice Jackson as a “far-left” judge. FWIW, at least one person has found examples of Jackson, prior to becoming a justice, working with organizations from “across the aisle”:

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12 responses to “President Biden Nominates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson For The Supreme Court”

  1. OzarkHillbilly Avatar
    OzarkHillbilly

    Good news, but I am sure Republicans will still object to having a black woman sitting on the Supreme Court.

    1
  2. Mister Bluster Avatar
    Mister Bluster

    @OzarkHillbilly:..Republicans will still object to having a black woman sitting on the Supreme Court.

    Republicans will object to anyone Biden nominates to the Supreme Court.
    Even if it’s Jesus.

    Jesus Was a Capricorn
    Get back, John

    3
  3. HarvardLaw92 Avatar
    HarvardLaw92

    We’re ecstatic and thrilled for her, to say the least. Called to congratulate her earlier today. He absolutely made the right call 😀

    16
  4. Pylon Avatar
    Pylon

    The new criticism from the right is that she’s from Harvard. Just not like Gorsuch or Roberts.

    2
  5. Daryl and his brother Darryl Avatar
    Daryl and his brother Darryl

    Already the Republican hypocrisy is at a fever pitch.
    Especially laughable…People who have had no problem voting in favor of Harvard and Yale grads before, all of the sudden, don’t think we should have so many Harvard and Yale grads.
    The contortions these folks will go through to justify voting against a woman of color is going to be hilarious to watch.

    4
  6. HarvardLaw92 Avatar
    HarvardLaw92

    @Daryl and his brother Darryl:

    Indeed. McConnell is also making noises about “an exhaustive review”, after railroading Barrett onto the court in the space of ten minutes. The hypocrisy is just a little too evident today.

    7
  7. DrDaveT Avatar
    DrDaveT

    In the interest of efficiency, perhaps the administration should just publish a numbered list of spurious and hypocritical arguments against Judge Jackson’s suitability for the Court. Then the Republicans in the Senate could just say (for example) “Um, #2 and #7” instead of wasting everyone’s time trying to phrase them in their own words.

    5
  8. just nutha Avatar
    just nutha

    @OzarkHillbilly: Alas, my money is on both Sinema and Manchin objecting, too. Time will tell.

    3
  9. MarkedMan Avatar
    MarkedMan

    Setting politics aside, this is a big win for the country. For my entire lifetime the Supreme Court has come from a pool of candidates who lived as the elite of the elite from high school on. They tend to have very little connection with real life as it is lived by 99.9% of the country. I can only think of three justices that cannot be described in this way, Ginsberg, Sotomayor, and Thomas. And Sotomayor and Thomas aren’t different because they followed a different track, but rather because as people of color they had different experiences forced upon them, even while walking the halls of privilege. Ginsburg is the real exception, having come from Cornell and Columbia and spendind decades fighting for civil rights before being tapped for the judiciary. We need more like her, and less the of the cosseted and groomed.

    Ketanji is more in the vein of Sotomayor and Thomas, but that’s so much better than the alternative that she will almost certainly be a win for the country.

    3
  10. Daryl and his brother Darryl Avatar
    Daryl and his brother Darryl

    @HarvardLaw92:
    And the “exhaustive review” of Justice Boof that included sending over 4,000 tips, called into the FBI, directly into the black hole of the Trump White House.
    https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/politics/fbi-kavanaugh-ford-investigation/index.html

  11. Scott F. Avatar
    Scott F.

    @HarvardLaw92:
    The last 5+ years have shown the Republicans there is no political cost for hypocrisy. Not even the littlest bit…

    4
  12. Gavin Avatar
    Gavin

    And she was a member of an improv comedy group, making her even better at thinking on her feet. What an unqualified monster!

    1

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