Former public defender Jackson among possible Biden Supreme Court picks
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[January 27, 2022]
By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ketanji Brown
Jackson, a federal judge seen as a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee
for President Joe Biden, could make history as the first Black woman
justice, boasting a varied legal resume including representing criminal
defendants who could not afford a lawyer.
Jackson, 51, who Biden last year appointed to an influential appellate
court, served early in her career as a Supreme Court clerk for Justice
Stephen Breyer, whose retirement https://www.reuters.com/world/us/liberal-us-supreme-court-justice-stephen-breyer-retire-media-reports-2022-01-26
will open up a vacancy on the nation's top judicial body.
As a member of the federal judiciary, Jackson has earned respect from
liberals and conservatives alike and is well-connected in the close-knit
Washington legal community. The Senate voted 53-44 in June last year to
confirm Jackson as a member of the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit.
She was part of a D.C. Circuit three-judge panel that ruled in December
against Republican former President Donald Trump's bid to prevent White
House records from being handed over to the House of Representatives
committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob
of his supporters. The Supreme Court on Jan. 20 declined to block that
decision.
Jackson also was part of a three-judge panel that declined last August
to block the Biden administration's COVID-19 pandemic-related
residential eviction moratorium, a decision that was later overturned by
the Supreme Court.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Jan/27/images/ads/current/stclara_lda_SPONSOR_090519.png)
Jackson previously won Senate confirmation in 2013 after Democratic
former President Barack Obama nominated her as a Washington-based
federal district judge. In her eight years in that role, she handled a
number of high-profile cases including one in which she ruled that
Trump's one-time chief White House lawyer, Donald McGahn, had to comply
with a congressional subpoena for testimony about potential Trump
obstruction of a special counsel investigation.
"The primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American
history is that Presidents are not kings," Jackson wrote.
The ruling was appealed and, after Biden took office, a settlement was
reached. McGahn testified behind closed doors.
Biden has pledged to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court. It has
had only two Black justices, both men: Clarence Thomas, appointed in
1991 and still serving, and Thurgood Marshall, who retired in 1991 and
died in 1993.
During her April 2021 confirmation hearing for her current job, Jackson
said her background, both personal and professional, would "bring value"
to the bench, though she rejected suggestions by Republican senators
that race could affect her rulings.
"I've experienced life in perhaps a different way than some of my
colleagues because of who I am," Jackson said.
Three Republican senators joined Biden's fellow Democrats in voting to
confirm Jackson.
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![](../images/012722pics/news_m25.jpg)
Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the
District of Columbia Circuit, is sworn in to testify before a Senate
Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations on
Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 28, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin
Lamarque/Pool/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Jan/27/images/ads/current/xamis_lda_LUAL_2016.png) Jackson would become the sixth woman
ever to serve on the Supreme Court, joining current members Amy
Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the retired Sandra
Day O'Connor and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
As a judge, Jackson in 2019 blocked Trump's plan to expedite removal
of certain immigrants and in 2018 ruled against his administration's
proposal to make it easier to fire federal employees - decisions
later reversed by the appellate court on which she now serves.
'PROFESSIONAL VAGABOND'
Biden has sought to bring more women and minorities and a broader
range of backgrounds to a federal judiciary dominated by jurists who
had been corporate lawyers or prosecutors.
Jackson was raised in Miami and attended Harvard University, where
she once shared a scene in a drama class with future Hollywood star
Matt Damon, before graduating from Harvard Law School in 1996.
Jackson in 2017 described herself as a "professional vagabond"
earlier in her legal career, moving from job to job as she sought a
work-life balance while raising a family. She and her husband, a
surgeon, have two daughters.
She worked from 2005 to 2007 as a court-appointed lawyer paid by the
government to represent criminal defendants who could not afford
counsel. Among her clients was Khi Ali Gul, an Afghan detainee at
the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The United States sent
him back to Afghanistan in 2014 when she was no longer involved in
the case.
Jackson worked from 2002 to 2004 for Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer
known for overseeing compensation programs including one for victims
of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Jackson in 2020 paid tribute to Breyer during a virtual conference
in which they both participated, saying he "opened doors of
opportunities" not just through his judicial decisions but also by
hiring a diverse group of law clerks.
"As a descendant of slaves," Jackson added, "let me just say that,
Justice (Breyer), your thoughtfulness in that regard has made a
world of difference."
Republican former House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, whose
brother-in-law is her husband's twin brother, is among Jackson's
fans.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Jan/27/images/ads/current/humanesociety_sda022411.png)
"Now our politics may differ," Ryan said at her 2013 Senate
confirmation hearing, "but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for
her character, for her integrity, it is unequivocal."
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott
Malone)
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