WASHINGTON — Reproductive rights groups hailed President Biden’s nomination of appeals court judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday to replace retiring Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer, while abortion opponents said Jackson would “trample the Constitution.”
The White House announced the nomination in a press release Friday morning. “Currently a judge on U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Judge Jackson is one of the nation’s brightest legal minds,” the release said. “If confirmed, she will be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.”
“Judge Jackson has broad experience across the legal profession – as a federal appellate judge, a federal district court judge, a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an attorney in private practice, and as a federal public defender,” the release continued. “Judge Jackson has been confirmed by the Senate with votes from Republicans as well as Democrats three times.”
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Biden said Jackson will bring “extraordinary qualifications, deep experience and intellect, and a rigorous judicial record to the court.” The Senate will need to confirm Biden’s nomination, and Biden said that he has “met with the chairman and ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — and my hope is that they will move promptly, and I know they’ll move fairly.”
Jackson also spoke at the press conference, saying she was “humbled” by the nomination. She also discussed her family background, including the fact that one of her uncles “got caught up in the drug trade and received a life sentence. That is true. But law enforcement also runs in my family. In addition to my brother, I had two uncles who served decades as police officers, one of whom became the police chief in my hometown of Miami, Florida.”
“Judge Jackson is both an eminently qualified jurist and someone who understands the disproportionate impact of our laws and justice system on communities of color,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, in a statement. “Judge Jackson also has a demonstrated record of defending and upholding our constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms — including reproductive freedom. We are confident that she will be a voice for justice, equity, and freedom on the Court in the decades to come. We urge the Senate to swiftly confirm Judge Jackson.”
Jackson, 51, has a history of favoring reproductive rights. In 2001, when she was in private practice, she co-authored an amicus brief on behalf of reproductive rights groups — including NARAL — in McGuire v. Reilly, a case defending the constitutionality of Massachusetts’ “bubble zone” law. The law, which was upheld twice by a federal appeals court, established a floating space around a person to protect patients and staff once they are within a certain distance of an abortion clinic.
In 2018, while serving as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Jackson ruled against the Trump administration’s termination of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants to programs in Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina, writing that the administration’s decision to terminate funding was arbitrary and capricious and violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH), another pro-reproductive rights group, also applauded the choice. “Judge Jackson is highly experienced and brings to the court 8 years of expert leadership on the United States District Court protecting reproductive rights, immigrant rights, workers’ rights, democracy, and accomplished notable work as a public defender prior to becoming a judge,” said Yashica Robinson, MD, a PRH board member, in a statement.
“We are thrilled Judge Jackson will bring this legacy with her to the Supreme Court, currently in dire need of a Justice who understands first-hand how the Supreme Court’s decisions impact every aspect of our lives. As a Black woman, she will bring her lived experiences and understanding of how critical and lifesaving it is to have equal justice under the law for all,” she added.
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), an anti-abortion organization, was not pleased. “The American people deserve a Supreme Court justice who will interpret the Constitution according to its actual text and history rather than one who would trample the Constitution to promote the radical pro-abortion agenda of the Democratic Party and Biden administration,” said Carol Tobias, NRLC president, in a statement. “To the detriment of both women and their unborn babies, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have clearly made abortion on demand their core issue.”
On another healthcare issue, Margarida Jorge, executive director of Health Care for America Now, an organization supporting universal healthcare coverage, also praised the nomination, noting that “Jackson’s track record shows that she will be a champion for the right to access affordable health care, regardless of gender, age, race or income.”
Jackson is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school she clerked for Breyer, worked in private practice, and also worked at the U.S. Sentencing Commission prior to becoming a judge. From 2005 to 2007, Jackson was an assistant federal public defender in Washington, D.C. Her husband, Patrick Jackson, MD, is chief of general surgery at Georgetown University Hospital here.
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