Biden heaps praise on Ketanji Brown Jackson after justice authors third majority opinion
Emily Jacobs
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President Joe Biden boasted that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was “brighter than the rest” of her colleagues during a speech on Saturday, just days after she authored her third majority opinion.
Biden made the comments during his Howard University commencement address on Saturday, where he discussed his first-term accomplishments, condemned his political foes, and implored students to stay politically engaged. Jackson was confirmed by the Senate to the nation’s highest bench last April with a slim bipartisan majority. Her confirmation was historic in nature, being the first black woman to serve on the Court.
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“With your voices and votes, I was able to fulfill my commitment to put the first black woman on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. And by the way, she is brighter than the rest. She is one bright woman,” Biden said of Jackson. “Because of you. You turned up. You showed up when the votes counted.”
“Because of you, more Black women have been appointed to the federal appellate courts than under every other President in American history combined,” he continued, prompting applause from students at the historically black university.
The Saturday speech served as a de facto campaign address, and Biden spoke to the issues of significant importance to this particular voting group, including climate change and student loan forgiveness. He also gave a shout out to Vice President Kamala Harris, a Howard alumni, who he said “sends her love.”
Jackson has received glowing reviews from her Supreme Court colleagues since joining the bench. Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted as much during an event at the University of Notre Dame in January.
“She is fully prepared — thoroughly prepared,” Kavanaugh said of Jackson. “[She’s] off to a great start.”
“There are great relations among all nine justices, both personally and professionally,” he added. “We only get tough cases, and we disagree on some of those. I think that’s more nuanced than it is sometimes portrayed.”
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That preparedness was on full display on Thursday, when Jackson authored her third majority opinion since joining the high court for the 7-2 decision in favor of a transgender immigrant fighting deportation from the United States.
In the ruling on Santos-Zacaria v. Garland, the high court ruled that a requirement for noncitizens to challenge deportation must first exhaust all administrative remedies is not jurisdictional, paving the way for Leon Santos-Zacaria, 33, who is transgender and goes by Estrella, to appeal deportation from the US.