Ketanji Brown Jackson [TEASER]

They don't actually care that she's black or female.

They care about putting a true believer on the bench.

And they're going to do it.

Hey, everyone, this is Leon from Fiasco and Prologue Projects.

On this premium episode of 5-4, Peter, Rhiannon, and Michael are talking about incoming Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson.

Jackson will not change the ideological makeup of the court, and her most important opinions will be dissents.

But she will be a reliable liberal vote on most issues.

So the lingering question is whether she will use her position to outline a bold, progressive vision of the law, or if the hosts of this podcast will have to continue doing that.

This is 5-4, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.

Welcome to 5-4.

where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have hunted our civil rights to extinction like the Russian government did to the Caspian Tiger.

Wow.

Sad.

Pour one out for the Caspian Tiger.

Is it white?

It's not white.

I don't think they would have hunted it down if it was white.

Yeah, in the, it was like 50s or 60s, they were like clearing land by the Caspian Sea, and the government ordered the military to kill tigers on site

for safety reasons.

So there went the Caspian tiger.

It's fucked up.

And that's why Ukraine flag in the bio for me, you know?

You know, I was on the fence about should we be sending weapons to Ukraine, but

now.

So

today,

special episode, we are talking about Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson.

She is, of course, the latest addition to the Supreme Court bench, having been sworn in on June 30th, 2022, replacing Stephen Breyer.

Bye-bye.

And as the October 2022 term of the Supreme Court kicks off, we thought it might be useful to talk about her, talk about her body of work as a judge, about the critiques she's faced from both sides, and what we expect to see from her and what we hope to see from her.

So, Rhee, a little personal life, a little professional history, maybe?

Is that what we're doing?

Yeah.

Yeah, let's talk a little bit about Katanji Brown Jackson before she was a Supreme Court justice.

So, up top, gotta get it out of the way.

Need to say this.

Maybe the most important thing about her.

She is a Virgo.

She's a Virgo like me, like Beyonce.

These are all incredibly important people, the three of us, Virgos.

And my mom, too.

Michael's mom.

Hello.

Born on September 11th.

Ignomi as Spirit.

Listen, it was her birthday first.

That's right.

All right.

So Katanji Brown Jackson spends most of her childhood in Florida, where she went to public schools and ends up graduating from Miami Palmetto High School.

Her parents were both public school teachers, but actually her dad eventually went to law school himself and he ended up being the chief attorney for the Miami-Dade County School Board.

Her mom eventually became an administrator for public schools and ended her career as a school principal.

Now, Katanji Brown Jackson was class president in high school.

She was also a star debater.

Yeah, real cool.

Real cool stuff.

Lots of nerd cred.

Yeah, absolutely.

She did undergrad at Harvard, graduated magna cum laude, and then spent a year before she went to law school.

She actually worked as a reporter and a researcher at Time Magazine.

Then she went to Harvard Law.

So Amy Howe at Scota's blog notes that before Katanji Brown Jackson was ever a judge, in the 17 years following her graduation from law school, KBJ, quote, attained three federal clerkships, worked at four elite law firms, and served two stints with the sentencing commission.

Hey, folks, if you want to hear the rest of this episode, you're going to have to subscribe.

This episode is one of our premium Patreon-only episodes.

Membership starts at just five bucks a month.

So if you want to hear the rest, join us at patreon.com slash five fourpod.

That's five four pod all spelled out.

Members get a bunch of stuff.

Not only do you get access to the premium episodes, but access to subscriber-only events, discounts on merch, and at the $10 a month level, you get bigger discounts on merch and membership in the incredibly rowdy 5-4 Slack.

So, again, that's patreon.com/slash five fourpod, five four pod all spelled out.

Become a member today.