Jackson, in high court mix, traces law interest to preschool - Marshall Independent
WASHINGTON — When Ketanji Brown Jackson’s younger daughter was 11, she drafted a letter to the president suggesting her federal judge-mom for a vacancy on the Supreme Court.
“Dear Mr. President,” Leila Jackson wrote. “She’s determined, honest and never breaks a promise to anyone even if there are other things she’d rather do. She can demonstrate commitment and is loyal and never brags. I think she would make a great Supreme Court justice.”
Jackson wasn’t nominated for the vacancy her daughter was writing about, one created by the 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia. And Republican lawmakers blocked then-President Barack Obama’s ultimate nominee, Merrick Garland, who is now President Joe Biden’s attorney general.
But Jackson might have another shot.
She is considered to be among the top prospects to replace retiring justice Stephen Breyer as Biden seeks to fulfill a campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the court.
Jackson talked about her daughter’s letter in a 2017 speech. She said the letter came about after her daughter learned there was a high court opening and thought her mom should apply.
“Getting to be on the Supreme Court isn’t really the kind of job that you apply for,” she and her husband explained to their daughter.
Still, a little bragging doesn’t hurt.
Jackson has a background similar to justices on the court and had attracted Obama’s attention as a possible nominee in 2016. She went to college and law school at Harvard. She also spent a year early in her career serving as a law clerk to Breyer.
Her experience as a public defender could set her apart, especially because Biden has prized criminal defense and civil rights work in other people he has nominated for federal judgeships.
Jackson is on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a position Biden elevated her to last year from her previous job as a federal trial court judge. Three current justices — Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and John Roberts, the chief justice — previously served on the same appeals court.
Jackson was confirmed to the appeals court by a 53-44 vote, winning the backing of three Republicans: South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski. That could be important to Biden, who has been reaching out for GOP support as he chooses a nominee. Another GOP connection: Jackson is related by marriage to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Miami. She has said that her parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, chose her name to express their pride in her family’s African ancestry. They asked an aunt who was in the Peace Corps in Africa at the time to send a list of African girl’s names and they picked Ketanji Onyika, which they were told meant “lovely one.”
She traces her interest in the law to when she was in preschool and her father was in law school and they would sit together at the dining room table, she with coloring books and he with law books. Her father became an attorney for the county school board and her mom was a high school principal. She has a brother who is nine years younger who served in the Army, including in Iraq, and is now a lawyer.
In high school, she was the president of her public high school class and a debate champion. Richard B. Rosenthal, a lawyer who has known her since junior high, said there was no question she would rise to the top of whatever field she chose, describing her as “destined for greatness.” His older brother, Stephen F. Rosenthal, a classmate and friend from Miami who also went to college and law school with her, called her a “natural leader” and someone with “penetrating intelligence.”
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source: https://www.marshallindependent.com/news/national-news-apwire/2022/02/jackson-in-high-court-mix-traces-law-interest-to-preschool/
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