Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let there be snark.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Come on, man.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Ketanji Brown Jackson for SCOTUS

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Ketanji Brown Jackson for SCOTUS

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… The Senate voted 53-44 last year to confirm Jackson as a member of the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she has authored two majority opinions including one favoring public sector unions that challenged a regulation issued under Republican former President Donald Trump that restricted their bargaining power.

She was part of a three-judge panel that ruled in December against Trump’s bid to prevent White House records from being handed over to a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by a mob of his supporters. The Supreme Court subsequently declined to block that decision.

Jackson also was part of a three-judge panel that refused last August to block the Biden administration’s COVID-19 pandemic-related residential eviction moratorium, a decision later overturned by the Supreme Court.

Catherine Stetson, a Washington lawyer who has appeared before Jackson in court many times, said the nominee has all the qualities of a good judge: “She is practical and intuitive and curious and courteous and always impeccably prepared.”…

Jackson in 2017 described herself as a “professional vagabond” earlier in her legal career, moving from job to job as she sought a work-life balance while raising a family. She and husband Patrick Jackson, a surgeon, have two daughters.

She worked from 2005 to 2007 as a court-appointed lawyer paid by the government to represent criminal defendants who could not afford counsel. Among her clients was Khi Ali Gul, an Afghan detainee at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The United States sent him back to Afghanistan in 2014 when she was no longer involved in the case.

Jackson worked from 2002 to 2004 for Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer known for overseeing compensation programs including one for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States…

Republican former House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, whose brother-in-law is her husband’s twin brother, is among Jackson’s fans.

“Now our politics may differ,” Ryan said at her 2013 Senate confirmation hearing, “but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, for her integrity, it is unequivocal.”

… Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday the Senate will move forward on the nomination with a “fair, timely and expeditious process.”

Once the White House officially transmits Jackson’s nomination to Capitol Hill, the next step is for the Judiciary Committee to send her an extensive questionnaire and document request to begin the vetting. Meanwhile, Jackson will begin setting up meetings with any senators who want to meet her for private conversations before public hearings begin. She is expected to begin making the rounds on Capitol Hill next week.

Senators will spend the next few weeks reading up on Jackson’s background, career and, most importantly, her decisions and opinions as a federal judge.

Her confirmation hearings, expected to last around four days, could begin as soon as mid-March.

WHEN COULD SHE BE CONFIRMED?

Democrats have an unofficial goal of confirming Jackson by April 8, when the Senate is scheduled to leave Washington for a two-week spring recess…

DO DEMOCRATS NEED REPUBLICAN VOTES?

As long as Luján returns by the final vote, and the rest of the Democratic caucus stays healthy and present in Washington, Democrats could confirm Jackson with no Republican support. Vice President Harris could break a tie.

Still, Biden and Durbin have said they want the vote to be bipartisan. Biden invited several Republican senators to the White House as he weighed his pick, and Durbin has stayed in close touch with several key Republicans, including Grassley and Susan Collins, a Maine moderate…

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  3. 3.

    debbie

    I want to preemptively condemn any RWNJ who says anything negative or disparaging about Judge Jackson. I’m looking at you, Kennedy.

  4. 4.

    m.j.

    If she gets criticized at all she should cry that it’s a, “hi-tech lynching.”
    It worked for Clarence.

  7. 7.

    Basilisc

    Barrett was confirmed 30 days after being nominated. They should start the hearings next week and hold the final Senate vote by March 29. Anything later will violate the “Barrett rule”.

  8. 8.

    Nina

    I found out yesterday that my sister in law worked with her in the 90s. Says she is the real deal, very honest, what you see is what you get.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    Is Russia unhinged enough to f*ck with and endanger the ISS?

    The announcement of new sanctions against Russia provoked a strong reaction from the head of Russia’s space program, Dmitry Rogozin, yesterday, who seemed to threaten that the restrictions would destroy Russia’s partnership with NASA and lead to the demise of the International Space Station. Though Rogozin is known for his bluster and provocative statements, his comments did spark concern over what NASA would do if the Russians abruptly pulled out of the ISS program — a move that could be a substantial problem. Source

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Amir Khalid:
    Especially as a guitarist, your mind is probably latching on to either of her surnames and thinking “Jackson Browne.”

    #notnecessarilyascientificanswer

  15. 15.

    Ken

    Democrats are hoping to move quick in getting her confirmed.

    I see the AP got rid of their last copy editor.

  19. 19.

    Scout211

    A bit of good news this morning.

    Pamela Moses, who was convicted of voter fraud in Tennessee last month and sentenced to 6 years in prison, was granted a new trial.

     

    According to the order granted Friday, Judge W. Mark Ward said evidence presented during the trial that Moses had been convicted of a felony in 2000 and had her right to vote restored in 2014 should not have been allowed. He reasoned that the evidence was initially allowed and proper when Moses faced 12 counts of illegal voting, but it should have been disallowed when the prosecution dropped those 12 charges before the trial got underway.

    Judge Ward also cited a Brady violation regarding an email that should have been turned over to the defense. The judge did not say the violation was intentional, but did say information in the email could have been relevant at trial. He said he was treating it as “an inadvertent failure to provide discovery under Rule 16.”

    Read the full order granting the new trial HERE.

     

  20. 20.

    NorthLeft12

    So Jackson is married to Paul Ryan’s brother-in-law’s twin brother? Since we all know about how you can’t choose relatives and especially in-laws, not even worried about this.

    Although in the spirit of comity, that was a classy statement from the usually odious Mr. Ryan.

    Personal note: I have not felt up to commenting since Tuesday, when I entered my local hospital with inflammation of my pancreas. All better now and will be discharged in a few minutes. Gall bladder to be removed in a month to permanently resolve this issue.
    I hate being a wuss, but I cannot handle hospitals. Very hard to sleep, boring, no fresh air, terrible food,  but the people are top notch and have always been very friendly, honest, and helpful.

    Two of the nurses told me that I was documented as an “independent” patient. I asked if this was nurse speak for pain in the neck.

  22. 22.

    germy

    @NorthLeft12:

    I thought maybe “independent” patient means a patient that doesn’t want to be fussed over and will not keep poking the buzzer to call them.

  23. 23.

    Mathguy

    RNC racists operating as usual-IOKIYAR. Also doesn’t surprise me that AP called Collins a “Maine moderate.” Moronic enablers. Starting to show in WaPo with their gawdawful recent change in editor.

  26. 26.

    germy

    BREAKING: Marjorie Taylor Greene announced as surprise speaker at white nationalist Nick Fuentes' America First Political Action Conference tonight in Orlando, FL. MTG has now joined Paul Gosar in embracing Fuentes. Fuentes claims alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos made it happen pic.twitter.com/PoqNp8UcAp

    — Ben Lorber (@BenLorber8) February 26, 2022

    Shortly before bringing up MTG, the camera showed a sizeable and raucous crowd. Fuentes praised "our secret sauce…young white men." Fuentes then solicited a round of applause for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, and the groyper crowd chanted "Putin, Putin." pic.twitter.com/I8BGH1TYGm

    — Ben Lorber (@BenLorber8) February 26, 2022

  28. 28.

    Fair Economist

    She’s so qualified they’re resorting to calling her overqualified – for going to Harvard. Ha.

  30. 30.

    rikyrah

     

    Once she is confirmed, Judge KBJ’s exhibit at the Blacksonian will be as big as Thurgood Marshall’s.

    All the while, Unca Clarence will still be a footnote, with the display to match???

  34. 34.

    Kay

    Ron Filipkowski
    @RonFilipkowski
    ·16h
    Kyle Rittenhouse today says he may sue Biden if he doesn’t apologize to him: “I tried reaching out to him 5 times to have an interview but he was too cowardly to sit down and talk to me.”

    Conservatives are raising an entire generation like this- just endless, endless whining about how they are the real victims. Kyle’s raising money for a new grifter fund- that’s the other thing- none of them work. None of them have normal jobs or careers. They’re all celebrities.
    I do legal work for a lot of owner-operators of trucks. The entire game is keeping the truck moving and getting paid. It’s a money machine. They don’t take three weeks off to block a bridge. They’d lose the truck.

  35. 35.

    germy

    If media reports are accurate, and Judge Jackson has been chosen as the Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Breyer, it means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again.

    The attacks by the Left on Judge Childs from South Carolina apparently worked.

    — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 25, 2022

    Lindsey Graham thinks you are dumb.

    Graham voted to CONFIRM Jackson to the DC Court of Appeals, widely regarded as the 2nd-most important court in the country, in JULY 2021 https://t.co/ypYB1UCW2m

    — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 25, 2022

  36. 36.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Kay: I find the “truckers” whining about mask mandates (the ones going away) especially grating in light of the courage and suffering in Ukraine. As for Kyle, as my unsympathetic mother used to say, that should be the worst thing that ever happens to him.

  39. 39.

    Spanky

    @Baud: Ahem.

    She’ll start off writing great dissents but hopefully she’ll be writing majority opinions in the second half year of her career.

  40. 40.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Just noting that alt-right and horseshoe left (and naive left/libertarian) hero Edward Snowjob.has gone missing the past four days.

    I guess he’s no longer useful.

    I’m hoping that his confinement is miserable, and that if he’s shed this mortal coil, that it hurt.

  46. 46.

    prostratedragon

    @Kay:  My gut response was, “Oooo, let me!” But I suspect a judge will tear him a new one if it gets that far.

     

    @rikyrah:  So it’s at least three. But congratulations to her, and best wishes for the process.

  47. 47.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Associate Justice Rhenquist wrote lone dissents for years, and look where he ended up. But I am hoping to see the Court turn to reason in my lifetime?

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    “Me, me, me”. One long scream. From the DAY covid hit all they did is complain. They all bitched and moaned about schools being closed and when schools opened they flooded school boards with their stupid CRT panic so no one could get anything done. They haven’t lifted a finger to help any public school anywhere, but they’re all expert school critics on Twitter. What’s the sum total contribution of the Right on covid or anything else? A huge group of self centered free riders who whine constantly.

    Have any of these dopes figured out yet that “nationalist” means you have to pick a side? By definition? That they can’t be “nationalists” and insist Russia has a nationalist interest in invading Ukraine without ignoring Ukraine’s intests? That’s what you get after twenty years of low quality hires promoting other low quality hires. You get “stupid”.

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: not so very unlikely — Thomas is 73 and had had some heart and health issues. Alito is 71 and is a major stress monkey, also with high blood pressure and a few coronary interventions. Then there is Roberts with his seizure disorder who has taken three serious falls that I know of…. So not impossible.

  52. 52.

    Yarrow

    I know there’s still a long way to go and lots of things could happen but this seems accurate at this point.

    Putin’s unprovoked war has turned Volodymyr Zelenskyy into a resistance hero, strengthened NATO, united EU and the US, decimated support for Putin’s regime, exposed the remaining apparatchiks in the West, and gave his opposition a common cause with the international community. pic.twitter.com/UYhEOoRFZ5
    — Morten Øverbye (@morten) February 26, 2022

  54. 54.

    NorthLeft12

    @germy:  Yes, I think that is right. I was still mobile so could take care of myself pretty well. I also learned how to silence the IV monitor alarm without calling the nurse. They seemed to appreciate me doing this. That alarm is a pain in the ass, and will go off the second the flow is reduced below alarm level. I know in industry we have alarms on instruments that have time delays, so that the alarm condition must be in for say fifteen or thirty seconds before you get an alarm.
    This reduces what are called nuisance alarms.
    I am going to send them an email later today asking them to consider activating this feature to reduce patient’s stress levels and nurse workload.

  57. 57.

    Kirk Spencer

    @NorthLeft12: the concern will be that in many cases seconds can make a difference and they’re already losing time getting there. My guess is that a few seconds of delay would be ok but how will the court rule when a patient dies and the family sues over the intentional delay?

  60. 60.

    debbie

    I wasn’t the only person masked when I ran my errands this morning, but I didn’t hear a single snide remark or see any skeptical looks. Better than I expected here in Ohio.

  61. 61.

    debbie

    @Yarrow:

    A new video just dropped from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky. He is speaking next to the building of the presidential office in Kyiv, famous ‘House with chimeras’ behind his back. He calls on everyone not to believe fakes and says there will be no Ukraine capitulation ?? https://t.co/iErWm2I4lE
    — Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) February 26, 2022

  63. 63.

    JPL

    @Immanentize: Until recently Thomas a man of few words, if he dies Ginny will send a wax character in his place.

    It was hinted that Alito and Thomas wanted to retire; we don’t know if that’s true.   We do know that rwnj’s wanted them to.   I think you are right.

  64. 64.

    oldgold

    @POTUS on Donald Trump calling Putin “savvy” and “genius” amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: “I put as much stock in Trump saying that Putin’s a genius as I do when he called himself a stable genius.”

  66. 66.

    Cameron

    What an outstanding pick.  I don’t get why Team Republican feels it has to prove it’s made up of toads every day – everybody’s known that for a long time.

  68. 68.

    Immanentize

    @JPL: 
    Alito is too filled with bile to retire. He will explode a la Scanners before he did so.
    Thomas was, I understand from decent sources, prepared to retire after the Trump victory in his second term which never occured. It amuses me a bit to think that drunk Ginni T (not to be confused with our wonderful G&T) made him stay because she was certain of victory one way or another.
    Scanners!

  69. 69.

    burnspbesq

    There are Ukrainian players on both sides of today’s Everton vs. Manchester City match. Apparently there will be some sort of banner displayed at Goodson Park. One imagines that City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko will get an unusually warm welcome for a visiting player.

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    @germy: 

    If media reports are accurate, and Judge Jackson has been chosen as the Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Breyer, it means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again.

    The attacks by the Left on Judge Childs from South Carolina apparently worked.

    — Lindsey Graham

    I liked Judge Childs and all the other potential nominees, but I am also glad that Biden ignored the attempt by Graham and others to push Childs as the only nominee acceptable to the GOP.

    The Republicans are shameless and committed to shit stirring. It’s tiresome, but Biden is up to the task of pushing back.

  71. 71.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Tucker Carlson says that Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court indicates that Joe Biden wants to “humiliate, degrade” and undermine America’s “ancient institutions.”

    Carlson is definitely speaking to his audience, and pretty bold about his tiresome racism.

  72. 72.

    JimV

    Again with this “humbled” crap? (Digression.) Humbled and honored are not synonyms, they are antonyms. Humbled is when you get your nose rubbed in the dirt. Okay, you could say, despite this great honor, I will endeavor to remain as humble as possible, but to say the honor “humbles” you is nonsense. Or if you mean that you don’t feel worthy of the honor, say that. (And don’t accept.)

    Twisting language to mean the opposite of what it says in the dictionary annoys me. I was raised by an English teacher. Especially from a judge, who is supposed in interpret fine shades of meaning.

    And no double negatives! (General statement, not specific to this post.)

    Okay, if it would preserve lives in the Ukraine I would go along with it, but it won’t.

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    One of my former colleagues shared a beautiful photo of the Canadian Embassy in Washington lit in the Ukrainian colours last night. These things are symbolic, but symbols can be very powerful.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JimV:

    I think there’s a big difference between “humbled” and “humiliated.” You seem to be defining the latter. My only problem with “humbled and honoured” is that it’s become clichéd through overuse. But I have no issue with the words themselves.

  75. 75.

    Geminid

    @JimV: General Matthew Ridgway had an interesting take on the use of the word “humble” and it’s related noun, “humility.” Sometime after the Second World War, General Ridgway took over a new Army command. Ridgeway was a general that stayed busy, so he had a staffer write his speech for the occasion.

    Ridgway reviewed the speech and when he came to the line, “and so, with humility,” Ridgway struck it out. He told the staffer, “I am humble before no one but my God.”

    Ridgway was a pragmatic person, though and probably have no problem with the usage people here are talking about.

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    @JimV:

    Again with this “humbled” crap? (Digression.) Humbled and honored are not synonyms, they are antonyms

    “Humbled” is taking on the meanings of “humility” and “humbleness.” It’s a kind of lexical guilt by association.

    This is how language often works.

  77. 77.

    J R in WV

    @debbie: 

    Awesome photo, thanks for sharing with us! Like a quarter million Georgians standing shoulder to shoulder for miles…

    “Fuck You — Russians!!!” from the Snake Island Ukrainian heroes!

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