Ketanji Brown Jackson was the first Black woman to sit on the nation’s highest court in its 223-year history.
Judge Jackson, who clerked for Justice Breyer, worked as a public defender, a corporate attorney, a U.S. District Court judge, and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
“If I’m fortunate enough to be confirmed as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,” Judge Jackson commented in her prepared remarks about her nomination, “I can only hope that my life and career, my love of this country and the Constitution and my commitment to upholding the rule of law and the sacred principles upon which this great nation was founded, will inspire future generations of Americans.”
Since joining the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has made valuable contributions, including writing a notable dissenting opinion in the Court’s ruling on presidential immunity involving then-former President Donald Trump. In her dissent, Jackson argued that the majority’s decision “breaks new and dangerous ground” by granting a former president immunity from prosecution for certain official acts. She expressed concern that this ruling could exempt presidents from legal liability for serious criminal acts as long as they claim their actions were “official acts.”
Jackson’s dissent emphasized the importance of holding presidents accountable for their actions and warned that the ruling could have disastrous consequences for democracy.