The Freedom From Religion Foundation hails the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the newest Supreme Court justice.
Brown Jackson will become the first Black woman to serve on the court, chipping away at the massive divide between the court’s makeup and the makeup of the country whose rights the court is tasked with protecting. With a strong track record as a public defender, followed by years as a trial judge before being appointed to the prestigious appeals court, Brown Jackson will stand as a strong example of what a Supreme Court justice should be. Jackson Brown will add a second Black justice and the fourth woman to the high court.
“Jackson’s confirmation will be a vital step in the right direction, and I’m personally excited that the Supreme Court will be closer to gender parity than ever before,” FFRF Legal Director Rebecca Markert wrote in a recent blog. “With four women on the Supreme Court, we’ll be one step closer to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s goal of ‘when there are nine.’”
FFRF happily signed on to a recent letter, along with hundreds of other civil society organizations, that urged the Senate to confirm her.
“Judge Jackson will be a tremendous addition to the Supreme Court,” stated the letter, spearheaded by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Her broad and impressive legal career has demonstrated her commitment to civil and human rights, and during her time as a judge, she has earned a stellar reputation for being an outstanding, fair-minded arbiter of justice.”
The Supreme Court, currently dominated by a supermajority of extremists, is in need of a major course correction, and Brown Jackson will help in that. FFRF has been championing the need for court reform throughout the federal judiciary, including at the Supreme Court, which Trump packed with extremists, in order to mitigate damage already being done to constitutional protections for voters, rights of conscience, women’s reproductive rights and the LGBTQ community.
However, Brown Jackson’s record on the constitutional separation between state and church is sparse. She clerked for outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, whom she is replacing and who was an inconsistent advocate of this fundamental American right. That’s why in a letter FFRF had urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to ask Brown Jackson to share her perspective on the topic.
FFRF also called out Sen. Lindsey Graham for his bizarre and phony line of questioning of Brown Jackson about her religion when he launched into a peculiar series of questions regarding her faith. Unfortunately, Graham wasn’t the only one in his party to act disgracefully toward her during the confirmation process.
“When Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination reaches the Senate floor soon, every Republican who votes against her confirmation will be complicit in the abuse that the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee heaped on her,” Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist (and friend of FFRF) Linda Greenhouse recently wrote in the New York Times. “Every mischaracterization of Judge Jackson’s record on the bench. Every racist dog whistle about crime. Every QAnon shout-out about rampant child pornography. Every innuendo that a lawyer who represents suspected terrorists supports terrorism.”
For the record, just three GOP senators (Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney) voted for Brown Jackson — a supremely well-qualified candidate.
“We are confident that Justice Brown Jackson will uphold the principles of the U.S. Constitution, including the all-American principle of separation between religion and government, and applaud this historic appointment,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
