Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia.  She is a former public defender and Sentencing Commission vice chair, and on the federal bench, she has stood up for the rule of law, holding the Trump administration accountable for its rule-breaking. She has been confirmed by the Senate on a bipartisan basis three times.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Key Facts:

• Ketanji Brown Jackson has a track-record of championing reform in the criminal justice system.
  • From 2010 to 2014, Jackson served as Vice Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
  • Jackson supported Sentencing Commission action to make retroactive a reduction in penalties for crack cocaine, resulting in over 12,000 people being eligible to request reduced sentences.
  • From 2005 to 2007, Jackson served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia in the appeals division. 
• As a federal judge, Jackson has stood up for the rule of law and against the Trump administration’s abuses of power. For example, Jackson compelled White House counsel Don McGahn to testify to House impeachment investigators, writing that “presidents are not kings” and that “no one is above the law.”
• Jackson has received substantial bipartisan support. She has twice been unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate. In 2012 Rep. Paul Ryan introduced her at her confirmation hearing, calling her “clearly qualified.”
• Jackson graduated from Harvard Law School and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.