U.S. Supreme Court pick Jackson to recuse from Harvard race case
Send a link to a friend
[March 24, 2022]
By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court nominee
Ketanji Brown Jackson on Wednesday said that if confirmed to the
lifetime job she would recuse herself from a major upcoming case
challenging the race-conscious admissions policy Harvard University uses
to increase its number of Black and Hispanic students.
Jackson, President Joe Biden's nominee to become the first Black woman
to serve on the high court, made the comment during the third day of her
Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. Jackson is a Harvard
graduate and a current member of the Ivy League school's Board of
Overseers.
"If you're confirmed, do you intend to recuse from this lawsuit?" asked
Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who attended Harvard Law School at the same
time as Jackson.
"That is my plan, senator," Jackson responded.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/24/images/ads/current/graue_sda_042021.png)
The justices in January agreed to hear that case and a related one
involving the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, giving the
court's 6-3 conservative majority a chance to end affirmative action
policies used for decades in student admissions to try to achieve
diverse student enrollment.
The dispute will be heard in the court's next term, which begins in
October.
The justices agreed to hear appeals by a group called Students for Fair
Admissions, founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, of
lower court rulings that upheld the race-conscious admissions policies
of both schools.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/032422PIX/news_i19.jpg)
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies during the third day of Senate
Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings on her nomination to the
U.S. Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 23,
2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/24/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png) The lawsuit against Harvard accused
it of discriminating against Asian-American undergraduate
applicants.
Jackson during her Senate testimony did not mention the North
Carolina case, leaving the door open to her possible participation
in that case. UNC is a public university that Blum's group has
accused of discriminating against white and Asian American
applicants.
Jackson earned both her undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard.
Her term on Harvard's Board of Overseers is set to end in late May.
Blum and a Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on Jackson's
recusal.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Additional reporting by Andrew
Chung and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/24/images/ads/current/castlemanor_sda_FINANCIAL_2017.png) |