Celebrating a More Inclusive Judiciary
The timing of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court--one day after Russia invaded Ukraine--understandably distracted attention from her selection. But Jackson’s ascent is a milestone we would appreciate and celebrate for multiple reasons.
We knew President Biden’s nominee would be the first Black woman so honored, but the lack of surprise shouldn’t minimize the importance of breaking through 230-plus years of excluding Black women from the Supreme Court. Jackson brings impeccable credentials that inspired the Unitarian Universalist Association to join in supporting her nomination. Among decades of achievements, Jackson graduated with honors from Harvard Law School; clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer; and currently serves as a judge on the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, DC.
Jackson also will break another pivotal barrier by becoming the first public defender ever to serve on the Supreme Court and the first criminal defense attorney since Thurgood Marshall retired in 1991.
Such experience directly impacts the fates of criminal defendants, who are disproportionately people of color. Federal judges with criminal defense experience less often impose the longest potential sentences, a tendency true regardless of whether a Republican or Democratic president appointed the judge. Insight into the lives of defendants also leads those judges to more often assign community service or probation without incarceration.
Grassroots work driving change
Democratic and Republican presidents alike have stacked the federal courts with corporate lawyers and prosecutors. Those judges’ rulings overwhelmingly have facilitated mass incarceration while favoring large corporations over competing public interests. Under Chief Justice John Roberts, a stunning 70 percent of Supreme Court rulings aligned with briefs from the largest corporate lobbyist, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
President Biden’s pre-election calls to further escalate law enforcement spending and sustain criminalization of marijuana use, among other stances, raised concern among people seeking to reform the systemic class discrimination and racism embedded in our legal system.
So justice advocates built a campaign to influence judicial appointments, including a “shortlist” of Supreme Court candidates who would diversify the bench (Judge Jackson was among them) and lobbied Biden’s advisors. Their work helped inspire a remarkable letter circulated by Biden’s transition team. It sought recommendations for judgeships, specifying “individuals whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench, including those who are public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys, and those who represent Americans in every walk of life.”
The promise of the letter is being fulfilled. Nominees to lower courts have diversified the bench in every way, including record numbers of women, people of color, public defenders, and civil rights lawyers. Biden filled more than three-quarters of open judgeships thus far with women and more than two-thirds with people of color—doubling the percentage of President Obama.
Like Judge Jackson, those nominees proved building a more inclusive federal bench requires no compromise in the judges’ level of accomplishment.
Though Jackson’s experience representing indigent clients in Washington, D.C. appears lower in news reports, that involvement gives her grounding likely to advance core UU principles of justice, compassion, equity, and the inherent worth of every person. She knows first-hand how our criminal justice system often mistreats the most vulnerable among us.
Of course, Jackson will likely be joining many dissents against a regressive supermajority until we install a Senate willing to expand and restore balance to the Court, but the accounts of justices who served with Thurgood Marshall—the first Black Supreme Court justice—tell us a unique personal perspective can influence the Court well beyond their vote.
As we and our congregations confront the urgent threats to peace, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and more, let’s cherish the landmark nomination of Judge Jackson and the grassroots work helping improve our entire federal judiciary. Through celebrating our victories, we can draw needed inspiration to energize our ongoing struggles.
The writer, Jeff Milchen, is UUA’s Justice Communications Associate. Learn more about the UUA’s justice priorities.
For an in-depth and more nunanced look at now-Justice Jackson, see Ketanji Brown Jackson Is Neither Our Champion Nor Our Enemy.