The U.S. Supreme Court has been making a lot of news over the last few weeks. Overturning Roe v. Wade certainly the biggest of the court’s decisions. The other had to do with gun control and a person’s right to carry one.
The current term isn’t done either. Rulings on two big cases are expected today. One has to do with whether a federal agency can regulate power plant emissions without a specific plan from Congress. The other… does President Biden have the legal authority to end the Trump-era remain in Mexico policy for immigrants seeking asylum?
Both of these will be big decisions. It’s something else though that happens at the Supreme Court that everyone will be watching.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be sworn in as the nation’s first female African American Supreme Court Justice. Huge.
Jackson will have two swearing ins. One by Chief Justice John Roberts. The other, by the man she is replacing, Justice Stephen Breyer.
Interesting to note here, Ketanji Brown Jackson once clerked for Justice Breyer.
Here’s something interesting. Even though Justice Breyer is retiring, he gets to keep an office at the Supreme Court. Smaller office space, but still there.
I started wondering, what must Ketanji Brown Jackson be thinking today? When confirmed, she said this, “Here in America, anything is possible.”
It certainly is. Justice Jackson is proof. She also noted in her confirmation speech in April that, “it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.” Wow. Just think about that for a minute.
Jackson also said this: “It is an honor of a lifetime to have this chance to join the court, to promote the rule of law at the highest level, and to do my part to carry out shared project of democracy and equal justice under law forward, into the future.”
What must she be thinking? This moment has to be the culmination of a lifetime of preparation.
What must she be thinking? A Supreme Court that has become politicized and enormously unpopular.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson will likely face cases on women’s reproductive rights and same sex marriage.
She likely won’t change the makeup of the Supreme Court. It’s divided. Conservatives in the majority.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson will be in it for many years. I can’t imagine what weighing those kinds of decisions must be like.
Today though, she should just enjoy the moment. What must she be thinking?