Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has made a name for herself with her lengthy liberal opinions in the four years she has sat on the Supreme Court, and although during the last term she dominated oral arguments, she found herself on an island more frequently than the other justices when it came time to issue rulings.
Jackson, appointed to the high court by former President Joe Biden in 2022, was the most vocal member of the Supreme Court during the 58 oral arguments held from October 2025 through the end of April 2026, according to a Washington Examiner review of Supreme Court oral argument transcripts. Her questions accounted for nearly 22% of the words said by all nine Supreme Court justices during those arguments, significantly more than the second-most vocal member of the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose questions made up 14.84% of the justices’ speaking during arguments.
Of the 75,286 words Jackson said throughout the nearly five dozen oral argument sessions, she spoke the most during the arguments for Louisiana v. Callais, in which the high court eventually ruled to strike down Louisiana’s second black-majority congressional district as unconstitutional. At 2,737 words, Jackson said more than 1,000 more words than the second-most vocal justice during that hearing.
Jackson’s quietest oral argument session of the term came during arguments for Coney Island Auto Parts v. Burton, when her questioning only took up 406 words. Despite her relative silence during the Burton arguments, she was still the second-most vocal justice during that hearing.
Among the nine justices, Jackson was the most vocal during the most oral argument sessions. She had the highest word count of any of the justices for 42 of the 58 oral arguments, far ahead of any of the other justices, and she never spoke the least during any of the oral arguments.
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During oral arguments, Jackson had a tendency of saying she didn’t understand when questioning lawyers on both sides of the case. Throughout the 58 oral arguments from October 2025 through April 2026, Jackson said some variation of “I don’t understand” 89 times.
The variations of the phrase said by Jackson during arguments included “I don’t understand,” 56 times; “I guess I don’t understand,” 22 times; “I just don’t understand,” seven times; “I’m not understanding,” twice; and “I didn’t understand,” twice.
When the Supreme Court began releasing decisions, Jackson was still vocal despite being the justice least likely to be in the majority ruling. All six of the majority rulings Jackson wrote were unanimous decisions, and none of them came in major cases. She was the only justice not to write a decision where at least one justice dissented from the majority opinion.
Her most notable majority ruling came in Urias-Orellana v. Bondi, in which she wrote that federal appeals courts must defer to the findings of immigration courts, rather than do their own fact-finding, when reviewing asylum claims. Jackson’s 9-0 ruling for the high court was one of several key immigration victories for the Trump administration this term.
Jackson wrote 26 total opinions during the term, including eight concurring opinions, two opinions partially concurring and partially dissenting, and 10 dissenting opinions. She wrote the most dissenting opinions of any of the justices this term.
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The Supreme Court will return for oral arguments on Oct. 5, when its next term begins. The next term will mark Jackson’s fifth on the bench, and barring a vacancy over the summer, she will still be the most junior justice.
Jackson’s tenure as the most junior member on the Supreme Court bench will be the longest span anyone has remained in such a position since Justice Elena Kagan held that distinction from August 2010 until Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation in April 2017.