A defense attorney in a society of cops

Why Ketanji Brown Jackson's experience is needed on the Supreme Court

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

In 2016, then-President Barack Obama interviewed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as a possible Supreme Court nominee after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. He wound up opting instead for Merrick Garland, then chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who cut a more conservative figure in multiple ways: He had more years of experience as a judge, had risen to a higher position within the federal judiciary, and, of course, was a white man.

Like many members of the judiciary, Garland also had experience as a prosecutor, both in the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office and as associate deputy attorney general under Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick. By contrast, Jackson was a rare member of the judiciary who had served as a public defender.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.