Her solo opinion marked the first time a new justice has made such a bold move in a first term on the court since conservative Justice Clarence Thomas did so in 1991, according to Supreme Court stats guru Adam Feldman. (Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined the court midway through the 2016-2017 term, wrote a solo dissent in the following term after he’d joined.)
“Her unabashed willingness to articulate a perspective that is contrary to that held by the majority of justices has made her the most formidable dissenting voice on the court,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, a prominent civil rights lawyer.
At the end of the nine-month court term that ended Friday, the focus was on the major cases on affirmative action, student loan debt forgiveness and LGBTQ rights in which the court was divided on ideological lines with Jackson and her two liberal colleagues in dissent.
Jackson’s clash with Thomas, the only other Black justice on the court, on their seemingly unresolvable differences on race and the Constitution generated headlines as they exchanged barbs in separate opinions in the ruling that effectively ended the broad consideration of race in college admissions.
Appointed by President Joe Biden to replace fellow liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired in the summer of 2022, Jackson reflected the administration’s commitment to diversifying the court in terms of race, gender and professional background.
‘Enlightenment’
Before she was appointed as a district court judge in Washington by former President Barack Obama, Jackson had served as a public defender. Biden appointed her to a federal appeals court in 2021 before elevating her to the Supreme Court the following year.
Jackson made her presence felt on her first day in the Supreme Court’s ornate courtroom in October, asking a series of polite but insistent questions, setting a trend that would continue throughout the term.
“Let me try to bring some enlightenment to it,” she said on that first day, when the court was hearing a knotty case about federal authority to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act.
She ended up speaking more at oral arguments during the course of the term than any other justice, according to Feldman. Based on the number of words spoken, she beat the next most talkative justice, fellow liberal Sonia Sotomayor, by an average of 600 words per argument, he found.
Sometimes new justices are more likely to keep their own counsel when first joining the court, although a new oral argument format introduced during the pandemic — with each justice given a chance to weigh in replacing the previous free-for-all format — is likely part of the explanation.
For some court watchers, what’s more important is what Jackson talks about than how many words she uses to say it.
When the court in October heard oral arguments over a conservative attempt to weaken further the landmark Voting Rights Act, Jackson was quick to counter the notion that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment was “colorblind,” noting that it was aimed at redressing historical harms to Black people following the Civil war and the end of slavery.
“I don’t think the historical record establishes that the founders believed that race neutrality or race blindness was required, right?” she said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
