Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Ketanji brown Jackson is a former federal judge and could be a U.S. Supreme Court nominee to President Joe Biden. With a wide range of legal experience, she has represented criminal defendants without the need for 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.

Jackson is respected by conservatives as well as liberals. He also has a good network in Washington’s close-knit legal community. The Senate voted 53-44 in June last year to confirm Jackson as a member https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/jackson-ketanji-brown of the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Her participation in a D.C. A three-judge Circuit circuit panel ruled against former Republican President Donald Trump’s request to block White House records being turned over to the House of Representatives investigation committee into the attack on Capitol Hill by a mob of Trump supporters, Jan. 6, 2021. The Supreme Court on Jan. 20 declined https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-spurns-trump-bid-keep-capitol-attack-records-secret-2022-01-19 to block that decision.

Jackson was also part of the three-judge panel which declined to block last August’s COVID-19-related residential eviction banatorium by the Biden administration. This decision was overturned later by the Supreme Court.

Jackson was previously confirmed by the Senate in 2013, after former Democratic President Barack Obama named her as Washington-based federal court judge. She was involved in a variety of cases, including one where she decided that Donald McGahn (the Trump-era chief White House lawyer) had to submit testimony regarding possible Trump obstruction of the investigation into special counsel.

Jackson said that “the primary conclusion from the last 250 years of American history recorded is that Presidents do not have to be kings.”

Appeal was made and a settlement reached after Biden was elected. McGahn was present behind closed doors.

Biden promised to nominate a Black woman as Supreme Court justice. The Supreme Court has only had two Black justices: Clarence Thomas who was appointed in 1991. He is still serving and Thurgood Marsh, who died in 1993.

Jackson claimed that Jackson’s background and experience would bring “value” to her job in April 2021, but she rejected the suggestion by Republican senators, that it could impact her rulings.

Jackson stated, “I have experienced life in a perhaps different way than my colleagues because I’m who I am.”

Biden and his fellow Democrats were joined by three Republican senators to vote for Jackson’s confirmation.

Jackson, who would join current Supreme Court members Amy Coney Barrett (Elena Kagan), Sonia Sotomayor (retired Sandra Day O’Connor) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will become the sixth ever woman to be a Supreme Court judge.

Jackson, as a judge in 2019, blocked Trump’s plan for expediting removal of certain immigrants. Jackson in 2018, however, ruled against Trump’s proposal that it be easier to fire federal employees. Jackson’s decisions were reversed later by the appellate court where she currently serves.

‘PROFESSIONAL VAGABOND’

Biden sought to make federal justice more inclusive by bringing in women and minorities from diverse backgrounds. Previously, the judiciary was heavily dominated and controlled by corporate lawyers and prosecutors.

Jackson was born in Miami, and she attended Harvard University. She once had a scene with Matt Damon in a drama class, but then graduated from Harvard Law School.

Jackson described herself in 2017 as “professional vagabond”. She had been a lawyer for a while and moved from one job to the next as she tried to find a balance between work and family. Jackson and her surgeon husband have two daughters.

Between 2005 and 2007, she worked as a court appointed lawyer, paid by government to represent criminal defendants who couldn’t afford legal representation. Khi Ali Gul was an Afghan prisoner held at Guantanamo bay, Cuba. The United States sent him back to Afghanistan https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/605325 in 2014 when she was no longer involved in the case.

Jackson worked for Kenneth Feinberg between 2002 and 2004. This lawyer is well-known for his oversight of compensation programs for victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Jackson paid tribute last year to Breyer at a conference where they were both present. He said that Breyer “opened doors of opportunity” through his judicial decisions and by hiring diverse groups of law clerks.

Jackson said, “As a descendant from slaves,” and added that Justice Breyer’s thoughtfulness has made all the difference.

Paul Ryan (Republican ex-House of Representatives Speaker), is among Jackson’s admirers. Ryan is also her twin brother.

Ryan admitted that “now our politics may diverge,” Ryan told Ryan during her 2013 Senate confirmation hearing. “But, my praise for Ketanji for her intellect, character, and integrity is unambiguous.”