Ketanji Brown Jackson
Associate Justice since 2022 and the first Black woman on the Court. She previously served on the D.C. Circuit and D.D.C., as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and as a federal public defender.
- Role
- Associate Justice
- Joined the Court
- 2022 (appointed by Joe Biden)
- Martin–Quinn score
- -2.81 (latest term)
- Decisions participated in
- 170 (Spaeth, 1946–2025 span)
- Prior roles
- Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Judge, U.S. District Court (D.D.C.); Vice Chair, U.S. Sentencing Commission; Assistant Federal Public Defender
How their votes have evolved, issue by issue
- Immigration: 12 votes, 83% on the liberal side.
- Criminal procedure: 11 votes, 55% on the liberal side.
- Free speech & press: 11 votes, 82% on the liberal side.
- Executive & agency power: 9 votes, 33% on the liberal side.
- Voting & elections: 7 votes, 100% on the liberal side.
- Guns & the Second Amendment: 4 votes, 100% on the liberal side.
- Federalism: 4 votes, 50% on the liberal side.
- Religion: 3 votes, 100% on the liberal side.
- Abortion & reproductive rights: 2 votes, 100% on the liberal side.
- Death penalty: 2 votes, 50% on the liberal side.
- Sexual orientation & gender identity: 2 votes, 100% on the liberal side.
Before the Court
As a lower-court judge on the D.D.C. (2013–2021, 365 opinions) and the D.C. Circuit (2021–2022, 2 opinions), Jackson wrote 367 opinions we could find on CourtListener: 367 for the court, 0 concurring and 0 dissenting. Most often on: Executive & agency power (44), Immigration (13), Criminal procedure (12), race (5). Selected passages appear in the “In their own words” timelines on this page.
How they question at oral argument
Over OT2023–OT2025 (3,541 substantive questions and remarks), Jackson's questions most often probed the text (29%), consequences and hypotheticals (20%), precedent (14%). Themes are assigned by a language model (75% agreement with independent reference labels). Compare all nine Justices.
Public statements, writings & appearances
A curated, sourced timeline of 25 speeches, articles, interviews, and public statements — each with a summary and a link to the original source. The interactive version with filters and full-text search loads above.
- — 31st Joseph L. Rauh Jr. Lecture on the emergency docket (David A. Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia)
Jackson lectured on the Court's emergency docket, arguing that the expedited route now decides major issues and warrants closer attention, and that fair process matters as much as outcomes. In a follow-up conversation with Maya Wiley she discussed the rule of law, public service and being the first Black woman on the Court.
The touchstone of equity is fairness
Topics: emergency docket, shadow docket, rule of law, judicial role
- — "Move Through the Hard Times" episode of the IMO podcast with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson (IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson (podcast, recorded in Los Angeles))
In a roughly 70-minute podcast conversation with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, Jackson discussed her life before the bench, including earlier relationship difficulties, building confidence in her work, balancing her career with early motherhood, and how she met her husband.
Topics: memoir, legal profession, women in law
- — Fireside chat with former Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar; Arabella Babb Mansfield Award (National Association of Women Lawyers Annual Meeting, Hilton Chicago)
Jackson received NAWL's highest honor, the Arabella Babb Mansfield Award, and held a mainstage conversation with former U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar about her path to the bench, reflections from the court, and her vision for the future of the law.
Topics: judicial role, legal profession
- — A Conversation with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (with Robert Hannon) (Davis Concert Hall, University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Before a 900-seat Fairbanks audience, Jackson praised the system's tolerance for reasoned disagreement, called the court's growing reliance on the emergency docket 'a net negative,' and drew on her public-defender and sentencing experience to argue courts should be less intimidating and more comprehensible to defendants.
a net negative for the court
Topics: emergency docket, judicial role, sentencing
- — Conversation with Judge Richard Gergel at the American Law Institute Annual Meeting (American Law Institute 2026 Annual Meeting, Washington, DC)
In a conversation with Judge Richard Gergel that opened with her memoir, Jackson defended her solo dissent in Louisiana v. Callais — saying the expedited finalization 'spawned chaos' amid redistricting — and warned the court must act to shore up public confidence when cases carry a political overlay.
Public confidence is really all the judiciary has
Topics: court legitimacy, judicial role, voting rights
- — Tate Lecture Series student forum on her path to the Court and judicial independence (Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX)
At SMU's Tate Lecture Series, Jackson recounted her family's influence, her public-defender and clerkship years, and her nomination, while stressing the importance of protecting judicial independence and equal justice under law.
Equal justice under law is a key tenet to freedom in our society
Topics: judicial independence, equal justice, judicial career, mentorship
- — James A. Thomas Lecture: "Equity and Exigency: A First-Principles Solution for the Supreme Court's Emergency Docket" (Yale Law School (Battell Chapel), New Haven, CT)
In the 2025-26 James A. Thomas Lecture, followed by a conversation with Dean Cristina Rodríguez, Jackson said the emergency docket had recently become a source of public controversy, contrasted today's practice with the largely capital-case emergency work she saw as a Breyer clerk, and criticized the Court's expanded willingness to grant emergency relief in government-brought cases before lower courts had ruled on the merits. She declined to prescribe specific reforms, framing the lecture as an invitation to rethink the docket around equal justice under law.
I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I would like to be a catalyst for change.
Topics: emergency docket, shadow docket, judicial role, access to justice, court legitimacy
- — Everybody Reads 2026 conversation with author Renée Watson on "Lovely One" (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR (Literary Arts / Multnomah County Library))
As the culminating event of Multnomah County Library's community reading program, which distributed 8,000 free copies of her memoir, Jackson discussed "Lovely One" in conversation with author Renée Watson, addressing identity, ambition, resilience, mentorship, and perseverance.
Topics: memoir, book tour, civics, legal profession
- — Thomas A. Flannery Lecture panel with Justice Kavanaugh on the emergency docket (E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, Washington, DC)
Sharing a stage with Justice Kavanaugh at the annual Flannery Lecture, moderated by Judge Paul Friedman, Jackson called the Court's increased intervention in emergency applications an unfortunate problem, arguing that the administration was making new policy and demanding it take effect before challenges were resolved, and questioning whether the Court should be superintending lower courts still hearing the issues. Kavanaugh countered that the Court had treated the Trump and Biden administrations alike.
superintending the lower courts when they are hearing and deciding the issues
Topics: emergency docket, shadow docket, judicial role, court legitimacy, separation of powers
- — Dean's Speaker Series conversation and Dalsimer Moot Court final (Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, Malibu, CA)
Jackson presided over the final round of the Vincent S. Dalsimer Moot Court Competition and then spoke with Dean Paul Caron, reflecting on her 2022 swearing-in, describing faith as the moral compass guiding her work, and urging students to spend part of their careers in government to see how law affects people concretely.
Topics: legal education, legal profession, judicial role, civics
- — Conversation with Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson at the Indianapolis Bar Association luncheon (Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, IN)
Speaking to more than 1,000 members of the Indianapolis legal community, Jackson reflected on her memoir and career and, asked what worries her most, pointed to the state of American democracy and the need for public attention to government.
Topics: democracy, civic engagement, memoir, dissent
- — Remarks on judicial independence and attacks on judges (First Circuit Judicial Conference, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico)
Addressing the First Circuit Judicial Conference, Jackson condemned the 'relentless attacks' on judges over their rulings, warning that intimidation of the judiciary departs from democratic norms and mirrors how non-rule-of-law countries operate.
The attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate
Topics: judicial independence, attacks on judges, rule of law, democracy
- — Conversation on Lovely One with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden (Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C. (aired on C-SPAN Book TV))
Jackson discussed her memoir with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden at D.C.'s MLK Memorial Library, reading from the book's preface and taking audience questions about her family, Harvard years, and path to the Court.
Topics: memoir, family history, legal education, book tour
- — Fireside chat at the University of Miami for the launch of Lovely One (University of Miami, Shalala Student Center, Coral Gables, FL)
On her book tour, Jackson returned to the Miami campus where her father studied law, discussing her path to the Court, the value of clerkships and professional networks, Court collegiality customs, and parenting a daughter with autism.
No one reaches the highest of heights on their own
Topics: memoir, mentorship, clerkships, legal education
- — Lovely One: A Memoir (Random House (publisher))
Jackson's memoir traces her family's rise from the segregated South to her confirmation as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, covering her Miami upbringing, Harvard years, public-defender work, and mentors including Justice Breyer.
Topics: memoir, family history, segregation, judicial career, mentorship
- — First broadcast interview as a justice, with Norah O'Donnell (memoir launch) (CBS News Sunday Morning)
In her first TV interview since joining the Court, Jackson discussed her memoir, said she would support an enforceable Supreme Court ethics code, and explained her dissent from the presidential-immunity ruling in Trump v. United States.
A binding code of ethics is pretty standard for judges
Topics: supreme court ethics, presidential immunity, memoir, dissent
- — Commencement address to Boston University School of Law Class of 2023 (Boston University, Boston, MA)
In her first commencement address as a justice, Jackson told BU Law graduates they were prepared to contribute to their communities, drawing career lessons from her own winding path and from musicals including Hamilton.
Anything is possible
Topics: commencement, legal profession, adaptability, musical theater
- — Day 2 questioning: judicial philosophy, sentencing record, and Guantanamo defense work (Senate Judiciary Committee (C-SPAN broadcast))
In the first full day of questioning, Jackson explained her methodology as a judge, defended her sentencing decisions in child-pornography cases against Republican criticism, and discussed her representation of Guantanamo detainees.
Topics: judicial methodology, sentencing policy, guantanamo, criminal procedure, constitutional interpretation
- — Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Hon. Ketanji Brown Jackson to be an Associate Justice (S. Hrg. 117-422) (Senate Judiciary Committee, Washington, D.C. (March 21-24, 2022))
Over four days, Jackson testified on her three-step adjudicative methodology, her view that constitutional text constrains judges, her sentencing record, and her prior work as a public defender and Sentencing Commission vice chair.
Topics: confirmation hearing, judicial methodology, originalism, precedent, sentencing policy
- — Commencement address to the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Class of 2021 (Penn Carey Law School (virtual ceremony), Philadelphia, PA)
Then-Judge Jackson, awaiting confirmation to the D.C. Circuit, was one of two speakers at Penn Carey Law's virtual 2021 commencement, addressing graduates about entering the profession.
Topics: commencement, rule of law, public service, legal profession
- — Confirmation-hearing testimony as nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Senate Judiciary Committee, Washington, D.C.)
At her D.C. Circuit confirmation hearing, Jackson testified alongside Candace Jackson-Akiwumi and fielded questions about how her rare background as an assistant federal public defender would inform her perspective as an appellate judge.
Topics: confirmation hearing, public defender, judicial methodology, dc circuit
- — Courage // Purpose // Authenticity: Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement Era and Beyond (MLK Day Lecture) (University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, MI)
Jackson's Martin Luther King Jr. Day lecture paid tribute to Black women of the civil rights movement, including Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to argue before the Supreme Court and the first Black female federal judge.
Topics: civil rights, black women in law, legal history, constance baker motley
- — Reflections on My Journey as a Mother and a Judge (35th Edith House Lecture) (University of Georgia School of Law, Athens, GA)
As a district judge, Jackson delivered Georgia Law's Edith House Lecture on balancing motherhood with a legal and judicial career, discussing the difficulties young women and new mothers face in law-firm practice.
Topics: women in law, work life balance, judicial career, legal profession
- — Vote and statement on retroactivity of the Fair Sentencing Act crack-cocaine amendment (U.S. Sentencing Commission public meeting, Washington, D.C. (as Vice Chair))
As Vice Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Jackson joined the unanimous vote to make the Fair Sentencing Act's reduced crack-cocaine guideline penalties retroactive, making roughly 12,000 federal prisoners eligible for sentence reductions, and stated her view that the retroactivity criteria were satisfied.
I believe we should go forward with retroactivity
Topics: sentencing policy, crack cocaine, fair sentencing act, retroactivity
- — Prevention Versus Punishment: Toward a Principled Distinction in the Restraint of Released Sex Offenders (Harvard Law Review, Vol. 109 (student note))
As a Harvard law student, Jackson wrote an unsigned note analyzing when post-release restraints on sex offenders (registration, notification, DNA testing) should count as punishment rather than prevention, arguing courts lacked a principled test for the distinction.
primarily has retributive or general-deterrent effects
Topics: sex offender registries, punishment theory, criminal law, due process