Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
Supreme Court of the United States
Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson was born in September 1970 in Washington, D.C. She earned both an undergraduate degree and a Juris Doctor from Harvard University. She clerked in several courts, including one clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. During law school, Jackson served as a reporter and staff researcher for Time magazine.
She served as co-chair of the United States Screening Commission for four years. She has been a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers. She served as a district judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for eight years, before being elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served one year.
She was nominated to be a Justice on the United States Supreme Court by President Joe Biden. She was confirmed by the Senate and was sworn in as an associate justice on June 30, 2022, concurrent with the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer.
She is married to Patrick Jackson, and they have two daughters. She is a Protestant.
In the News…
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority reversal of a lower court ruling regarding the reasonable suspicion of law enforcement to stop drivers under the Fourth Amendment.
Justice Jackson wrote, “I am not sure why our Court sees fit to intervene in this case, let alone to do so summarily… [t]he issue is not whether any one factor individually justifies a stop, but rather whether ‘collectively’ the totality of the circumstances supports a determination that the officers had reasonable suspicion for an investigatory stop.”
“If, finally, the Court’s decision to intervene reflects disapproval of the [D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’] assessment of which particular facts to weigh and to what extent, I cannot fathom why that kind of factbound determination warranted correction by this Court,” Justice Jackson continued, “Even if I would have assigned more heft to a particular fact in my own first-instance assessment, I would not word-smith a lower court in this fashion. In my view, this is not a worthy accomplishment for the unusual step of summary reversal.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Justice Jackson today? You can let her know at:
The Honorable Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
Supreme Court of the United States
1 First Street NE
Washington, DC 20543
