Ketanji Brown Jackson marks a 1st and more of the same for the Supreme Court

Ketanji Brown Jackson.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

In any other week, a nomination to the Supreme Court would be the top story. With Russian troops nearing Kyiv this morning, President Biden's selection of Kentaji Brown Jackson earns barely a murmur.

International events aren't the only reason Jackson's nomination won't attract much attention. Biden had already announced that he planned to keep his campaign promise to select a black woman. The pool of nominees was further narrowed by the administration's adherence to conventional criteria, including a degree from an Ivy League law school and confirmation to a previous judgeship by the Senate. Under these constraints, Jackson was the front-runner from the start.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.