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Huzzah: Prez Biden reportedly to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court

By Douglas Berman

Download (23)It was just over six years ago, a few days after the surprise death of Justice Antonin Scalia, that I started to talk up then-US District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as my favorite SCOTUS short-lister.  As I then explained, though Judge Jackson was only 45 years old back in 2016 and had then served only three years as a federal district judge, her impressive professional history and especially her criminal justice experiences — as a federal public defender, as a member of the US Sentencing Commission, and as a sentencing judge — would make her an especially valuable addition to the Supreme Court.

Disappointingly, Prez Obama back in 2016 decided to nominate yet another former prosecutor to SCOTUS when he tapped then-Judge Merrick Garland rather than a former defender like Judge Brown Jackson.  But, of course, Republicans Senators refused to even have a hearing to consider Judge Garland and so Justice Scalia’s seat remained unfilled until Prez Trump was elected and named now-Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Court.  Fast forward six years, and Merrick Garland is now serving as US Attorney General and many press outlet (such as Fox News here) are reporting that Prez Biden will now nominate Judge Brown Jackson to replace the Justice she clerked for, Justice Stephen Breyer.

I had the honor of meeting Judge Brown Jackson back when she was a member of the US Sentencing Commission, and I have been a fan of her work for quite sometime.  For all sorts of reasons, I think this is a terrific choice by Prez Biden and continues his impressive record on judicial selections.  I will likely have a number of posts about Judge Brown Jackson and her potential impact on the Court (with an emphasis on sentencing, of course) in the weeks ahead.  For now, I will conclude with another HUZZAH!

A few prior related posts: