Ketanji Brown Jackson

US Supreme Court justice since 2022

Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson (née Brown; /kəˈtɑːndʒi/ kə-TAHN-jee ; born September 14, 1970) is an American lawyer and jurist who is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States . Jackson was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Joe Biden on February 25, 2022, and confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn into office that same year.

She is the first Black woman , the first former federal public defender , and the sixth woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

Jackson was born in Washington, D.C. , and raised in Miami , Florida. She received her undergraduate and legal education at Harvard University , where she served as an editor of the _Harvard Law Review _, and clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer , whose seat she later assumed on the Supreme Court. From 2010 to 2014, Jackson was the vice chairwoman of the United States Sentencing Commission . In 2013, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as a district judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia . President Joe Biden elevated her to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2021, where she served until 2022. Jackson served as a Harvard Board of Overseers member from 2016 to 2022.

Alongside justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor , Jackson is considered part of the Court's liberal wing.

Early life and education

Jackson was born on September 14, 1970, in Washington, D.C. , to parents who were both teachers and had been educated at historically Black colleges and universities . Her father, Johnny Brown, graduated from the University of Miami School of Law and became chief attorney for the Miami-Dade County School Board . Her mother, Ellery, was the school principal at the New World School of the Arts in Miami. One of her uncles, Calvin Ross , served as the police chief of the Miami Police Department .

Her paternal great-great-great-grandfather was Olmstead Rutherford, who was enslaved by John H. Rutherford on a Georgia plantation.

Jackson grew up in Miami and attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School . She distinguished herself as a champion debater, winning the national oratory title at the National Catholic Forensic League championships in New Orleans during her senior year. She has recalled her experience with high school debate as one "that I can say without hesitation was the one activity that best prepared me for future success in law and in life." In 1988, Jackson graduated from Palmetto as senior class president.

In her high school yearbook , she was quoted as saying that she wanted "to go into law and eventually have a judicial appointment".

After high school, Jackson matriculated at Harvard University to study government, having applied despite her guidance counselor's advice to set her sights lower. She took classes in drama and performed improv comedy , forming a diverse friend group.

As a member of the Black Students Association, she led protests against a student who displayed a Confederate flag from his dormitory window and protested the lack of full-time professors in the Afro-American Studies Department. While a freshman, Jackson enrolled in Michael Sandel 's course Justice, which she has called a major influence during her undergraduate years. She graduated from Harvard in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts , magna cum laude .

Her senior thesis was titled "The Hand of Oppression: Plea Bargaining Processes and the Coercion of Criminal Defendants".

From 1992 to 1993, Jackson worked as a staff reporter and researcher for _Time _ magazine. She then attended Harvard Law School, where she was a supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review, graduating in 19

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Judge Jackson at the James B. Parsons Legacy Dinner on February 24, 2020

Jackson has said she does not have a particular judicial philosophy, but rather has a perspective on legal analysis or a "judicial methodology". …