Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Thursday that the “state of our democracy” keeps her up at night — a sentiment that reflects growing alarm in her recent public comments and dissents from the court’s conservative rulings.
“I’m really very interested to get people to focus, and to invest and to pay attention to what is happening in our country and in our government,” Jackson said during a live-streamed conversation with U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson, hosted by the Indianapolis Bar Association.
Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court and its most junior member, did not expand on her warning. But her comments echoed sharp dissents she has issued against the court’s conservative supermajority, particularly on rulings that have expanded presidential power and limited the ability of lower courts to challenge executive actions.
In recent terms, the Supreme Court has handed down a series of decisions that bolster presidential immunity, curtail nationwide injunctions, and temporarily uphold controversial Trump-era executive orders. Jackson has emerged as a leading voice of dissent, issuing more dissents than any of her colleagues in the term that ended last month.
At an event in New Orleans last weekend, Jackson described the conservative bloc’s rulings as “an existential threat to the rule of law.” In a June 27 dissent, she criticized the majority for curbing lower courts’ power to block presidential policies, calling the decision “profoundly dangerous” and warning it would allow the Executive to wield “unchecked, arbitrary power.”
Her stance drew a sharp rebuttal from Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who authored the majority opinion. “We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself,” Barrett wrote.
Thursday’s event focused largely on Jackson’s personal life. She revealed her favorite song is Cheryl Lynn’s “Got to Be Real,” she enjoys the TV show Survivor, and fried chicken is among her favorite foods.
Asked how she decides when to write a dissent, Jackson said, “It’s because I feel like I might have something to offer and add, and I’m not afraid to use my voice.” She added that criticism from fellow justices doesn’t bother her: “I have a thick skin.”
Judge Magnus-Stinson noted that Jackson has occasionally sided with conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch in some cases. Jackson said that such cross-ideological alignments aren’t unusual. “Sometimes you’ll find someone you wouldn’t normally be aligned with who thinks about this issue the same way that you do,” she explained.
With six conservative justices and three liberals on the bench, Jackson is frequently in the minority. When Magnus-Stinson remarked on this, Jackson responded with a laugh: “Sometimes.”
Reflecting on her three years on the court, Jackson said she’s still surprised by its rigid formality. “I didn’t realize how formal the court really is,” she said. “I kind of thought when justices go into conference they let their hair down a little bit — no.”
