Ketanji Brown Jackson Needs to Decide: SCOTUS or Celebrity

Ian Haworth
Tue, 03 Feb 2026 18:03:54 -0800
Opinion

In 2022, former President Joe Biden added to his growing list of DEI hires — the most notable at that stage being former Vice President Kamala Harris — when he was tasked with replacing Justice Stephen Breyer, announcing that while undecided, his eventual nominee would be "someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity," and also "the first black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court."

While extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity are certainly important variables to consider, Biden's repeated inclusion of sex and skin color essentially made his later decision — Ketanji Brown Jackson — the Karine Jean-Pierre of the Supreme Court, with her almost constant inability to understand the arguments being presented to her concealed behind declarations of her being oh-so-historic.

What makes matters worse — beyond the fact that Jackson isn't very good at her job — is that she is constantly engaging in behavior that flies in the face of the character and integrity lauded by Biden just a few years ago.
Updated: Tue Feb 03, 2026

In 2022, former President Joe Biden added to his growing list of DEI hires — the most notable at that stage being former Vice President Kamala Harris — when he was tasked with replacing Justice Stephen Breyer, announcing that while undecided, his eventual nominee would be "someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity," and also "the first black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court."

While extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity are certainly important variables to consider, Biden's repeated inclusion of sex and skin color essentially made his later decision — Ketanji Brown Jackson — the Karine Jean-Pierre of the Supreme Court, with her almost constant inability to understand the arguments being presented to her concealed behind declarations of her being oh-so-historic.

What makes matters worse — beyond the fact that Jackson isn't very good at her job — is that she is constantly engaging in behavior that flies in the face of the character and integrity lauded by Biden just a few years ago.

I'm not just talking about her appearance in a Broadway musical, or her place on The New York Times' "93 Most Stylish People of 2022" list. No, this time I'm talking about her ridiculous appearance at the Grammy Awards after being nominated for an award for best audio book, narration and storytelling for her memoir, "Lovely One" and her gleeful embrace of a ceremony whose theme may as well have been "f*** ICE."

Look, moronic celebrities are allowed to have whatever ridiculous political views they want — including the notion that American law enforcement is systemically racist, that Hamas are peace-loving freedom fighters, or that the enforcement of a sovereign nation's borders is akin to Nazi Germany — but Ketanji Brown Jackson is not a celebrity. She is a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and frankly, it's about time she acted like it.

Was she in any way supportive of the anti-ICE tirade that went on for several hours? Who knows. But regardless, it is utterly inappropriate for one of the highest judicial authorities in the nation to be gallivanting around in a politicized environment that — at best — threatens the notion that her judgement is in any way objective.

After all, it's hardly a surprise that this year's Grammy awards were hyper-focused on the most controversial topic in the country, let alone one the fact that immigration-related cases continue flooding up the steps of the Supreme Court. Ketanji Brown Jackson might not understand oral arguments, but surely she understands that this is a really, really bad look?

There are two options here and neither are good. Either Jackson didn't understand the message her attendance would send — implying stunning ineptitude and wildly poor judgement — or Jackson understood the implications fully ... and went along anyway, elated grin ready to shine.

In a country that is inundated and obsessed with celebrity, the Supreme Court should be one of the few places where some level of solemnity remains. With that in mind, what we really don't need is Ketanji Brown Jackson showing up with her latest audiobook and her favorite tutu to deliver a rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream."