Legal scholars believe she can have a significant impact, even in the minority.
With a vote of 53–47, the US Senate completed the ascent of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the nation's Supreme Court. The charge of being an active jurist who is soft on crime and lenient towards child pornography offenders is the idea behind him. Jackson has become the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and the first federal public defender to serve as a first justice. Of course, Jackson's elevation does nothing to alter the court's ideological balance, but his presence would in other ways represent a tectonic shift for the Supreme Court.
The first thing to keep an eye on is his disagreement.
"The protests are extremely important because they remind the public and the court that there is an alternative approach," says Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women's Law Center. "They are sometimes guiding positions to make future decisions."
Taken together, Jackson's background as the first black woman and the first former public defender to sit on the Supreme Court means that she will bring a fresh approach to judicial opinion, and some legal experts suggest that it will give her the best of her colleagues. can also help influence
University of Georgia law professor Melissa Redmon says bringing the lens of a defense attorney into deliberation can help other judges redefine the way they look at certain cases, in particular, Criminals, she says, involve legal disputes over illegal searches and seizures, defense against self-criminalization and other rights of the accused.
"Typically, in criminal cases, you're talking about Fourth, Fifth, Sixth Amendment rights, 14th Amendment rights," Redmon says. With Jackson, "You have someone who is well acquainted with this."
Even if it does not influence the final decisions given by the court, Jackson may express his point of view in disagreement that may have greater impact in future cases or with other branches.
Graves points to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who told the New Republic in 2014: "My dissenting opinion, like my brief, is intended to persuade. And sometimes it is forced to say that How wrong is the court's decision."
When Ginsberg disagreed in 2007 in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, in which Lily Ledbetter accused her employer Goodyear of underpaying her because of her gender, Ginsberg wrote in the minority that it was up to lawmakers to decide whether They change it. The injustice of gender pay discrimination. By 2009, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and it was the first bill that former President Barack Obama signed into law.
Williams, dean of the law school at the University of Cincinnati, says the Supreme Court's disagreement could also give litigants clues as to how to argue a similar case. “Sometimes in discontent, you can pick up a nugget,” says Williams, who served as lead counsel and successfully argued Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education in 1999, which established that school boards should Can be held liable for failing to intervene – on-student sexual harassment are a few examples.
Jackson will join Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor on the liberal side of the court, both also notable for their dissent. Williams worries that his identity could lead to his dismissal by some. “There is a danger that their voices will be further marginalized because, well, they are female liberals in the minority,” she says. For the first time, the entire liberal wing of the bench will be made up of women, two of whom will be women of color.
But the experts I spoke to also suggested that Jackson's opinion should be used not only as the first and only black woman on the court, but as one of two black judges to serve at the same time for the first time. will have a significant impact.
In his three decades on the court, Justice Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving current justice, has become not only a credible conservative voter, but an icon for many Republicans for his views on race.
When Jackson joins him, Graves says: "It means there will be more than one approach around Blackness on the court."
While legal experts agree that Jackson could have a significant impact on the court, even in a minority, it is less clear whether his confirmation will save the Democratic Party majority from this fall. would be sufficient.
In January, at a White House ceremony announcing Stephen Breyer's retirement from the bench after 28 years, President Joe Biden reiterated a promise he made on the campaign trail to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court if she had the chance. . "It is long overdue, in my view," he said. The commitment was originally made because his 2020 presidential campaign was in freefall and needed a stroke. Some political analysts see parallels between the timing of his presidency and the present moment, with most national elections putting his approval count at around 40 percent and concerns that Democrats could lose the House and Senate in the midterms this year. .
The question remains whether fulfilling this campaign promise will be enough to bolster the Democratic base, particularly black voters, who see the party falling short on big-ticket agenda items such as police reform and new federal voting rights protections. point to.
“At the end of the day, it will be comforting to know that there is a [Justice] Jackson on the Supreme Court. But black communities are not stupid,” says Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter. “This is not something that black voters do. Feel in your pocket or see directly in your communities. And that's really going to turn people into elections," says Garza, who now leads the Black to the Future Fund, which aims to make black communities more powerful in politics.
For Republicans, Jackson's confirmation could also add to the momentum of the GOP in the middle of this fall. "I think for Republican voters," says Republican National Committee spokeswoman Paris Dennard, "they're going to see it and be reminded of the fact that elections have results."