Biden Selects Jackson for Supreme Court From Left-Wing Donor ‘Shortlist’

D.C. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court, was among the names on a shortlistDemand Justice, a liberal legal organisation funded by the mega-donor Arabella Advisors. 

Demand Justice forced Biden to select someone from its Supreme Court List during the 2020 campaign. It heralded Jackson as a jurist “stood up for the rule of law, holding the Trump administration accountable for its rule-breaking.” 

And it credited Jackson for writing that “presidents are not kings” and that “no one is above the law.”

“With the intended nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden has made it clear that his top priority is paying back the left-wing dark money network that spent over one billion dollars to help elect him and Senate Democrats,” Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal group, tweeted.

Jackson, 51 years old, will succeed Justice Stephen Breyer. She was her clerk before she became a public defender, and later vice-chairwoman of the U.S. Senate. Sentencing Commission. 

President Barack Obama appointed Jackson in 2013 as U.S. District judge for the District of Columbia. Last year, Biden appointed her to the  U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. 

He announced his pick Friday Biden called Jackson “one of our nation’s brightest legal minds” and said she “will be an exceptional justice.”

Demand Justice started in 2018 under the fiscal sponsorship of Arabella’s nonprofit Sixteen Thirty Fund before it spun off to become an independent organization. 

The group praised Biden’s choice of Jackson.

“President Biden will reportedly nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first ever Black woman and first ever former public defender on the Supreme Court,” Demand Justice tweeted Friday. “Jackson would bring more experience as a trial court judge than any sitting Supreme Court justice.”

Jackson frequently was talked about  in media reports as the likely frontrunner in Biden’s considerations for the high court. 

However, there was significant chatter about U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs from South Carolina who had the support of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the top Republican on Senate Judiciary Committee. Childs also received the support of Jim Clyburn, D.S.C., House Majority Whip, who pushed Biden, a 2020 presidential hopeful, to name the first female justice of color. 

However, Childs was not on Demand Justice’s shortlist for the Supreme Court. 

“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,” Graham tweeted Friday. “The attacks by the Left on Judge Childs from South Carolina apparently worked.”

Graham’s tweet is especially notable because in June 2021, the Senate confirmed Jackson to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals by a vote of 53-44. Graham joined Democrats for the vote with Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, fellow Republicans. 

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts announced that Biden failed his first appointment to the court. 

“Ketanji Brown Jackson is the most radical judge ever nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court,” Roberts saidIn a public statement.  “A review of her record and judicial philosophy reveals a deeply troubling pattern and raises questions about her ability to be a fair and impartial judge.”

The Heritage Foundation’s multimedia news agency, The Daily Signal (Multimedia News Organization), is The Daily Signal. 

Roberts said: 

Jackson’s limited judicial record shows that she has repeatedly ignored the Constitution and twisted the law to favor certain outcomes. Judges should play a limited role in our government, yet Jackson’s far-left supporters want her to impose a political agenda that invents new rights or erases rights she doesn’t like.

Based on the information that we have, senators should reject her lifetime appointment.

The Daily Signal previously reported that Paige Herwig, Demand Justice’s founder, was part the White House legal staff that helped select the next Supreme Court justice. 

Demand Justice also publicly supported Breyer’s retirement from the court. 

“Recently, the Arabella Advisors network has been increasingly vocal about the fact that Jackson was their preferred nominee—the one they are sure will rubber-stamp their left-wing political agendas from the bench. Today, Joe Biden is delivering exactly who they demanded,” the Judicial Crisis Network’s Severino said in a tweet thread. 

Demand Justice’s 2020 shortlist followed similar lists of potential Supreme Court nominees issued in 2016 by separate lists by The Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. 

The initial Trump shortlist 11 namesLater, it grew to 21. That’s closer to being short than Demand Justice’s list of 47 people.  

Biden staffed up his administration with names from Demand Justice’s Supreme Court list, including Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, and Assistant Education Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon.

In a tweet, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. enthused that Jackson is “an excellent choice to be the next Supreme Court Justice!”

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D.Calif., a senior Democrat serving on the Judiciary Committee celebrated the nomination. 

“Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is indisputably well qualified to serve on the Supreme Court,” Feinstein said in a tweet. “She currently serves as a federal appellate judge on the D.C. Circuit Court and before that spent eight years as a federal district judge on the D.C. District Court.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a member of the Judiciary Committee who voted against Jackson’s D.C. Circuit nomination, said that he was looking forward to meeting the judge and expressing concerns. 

“Now that President Biden has made his choice for the Supreme Court, I look forward to meeting with Judge Jackson one on one, and to the Judiciary Committee hearings to follow,” Hawley said in a public statement, adding:

Judge Jackson’s appearance last year before the Judiciary Committee was a troubling experience for me. I was particularly concerned about her record on crime, criminal justice, and other issues. I will be thoroughly reviewing Judge Jackson’s record from top to bottom and look forward to speaking with her.

Biden, a Democratic candidate for president, promised two years ago to appoint the first African woman to the Supreme Court. 

Jackson, if confirmed, will also become the third African justice and sixth female justice in American History. 

The only African Americans who have served on the high courts were the late Justice Thurgood Marshall (a Democrat) and the current Justice Clarence Thomas (a Democrat), appointed by President Lyndon Johnson. Bush, a Republican.

The first woman to serve on the high court, Sandra Day O’Connor, was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. President Bill Clinton appointed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Democrat, as the second woman to serve on the court. 

Jackson, if confirmed, would serve alongside Justices Amy Coney Barrett, appointed by Republican Donald Trump, and Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, both appointed by Democrat  Barack Obama.

Conservatives should oppose Jackson’s nomination, said Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action for America. 

“Judge Jackson is a hand-picked selection from far-left groups like Demand Justice, who fully expect her to rule according to their progressive judicial philosophy rather than uphold the Constitution,” Anderson said in a written statement. “During her tenure on the D.C. Court of Appeals, she has assembled a judicial record that prioritizes the abortion industry and illegal immigration interest groups ahead of a faithful interpretation of the law.”

Anderson said the nomination was “shameful timing” coming immediately after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine;

Conservatives should use confirmation to expose the devastating effects of liberal judges upon the nation. The left-wing judicial activism machine has been installing judges who are outof touch with the American people, and who disregard the Constitution and precedent in favour of special interests and their political leanings.

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