Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the newest member of the Supreme Court, condemned what she described as a “relenting attack” on Thursday on the judge and the harassment environment “at the risk of ultimately undermining our constitution and the rule of law.”
“Across the country, judges face an increasing threat of professional retaliation not only for physical violence but for doing our job,” Judge Jackson said at a meeting for judges held in Puerto Rico. “And the attacks are not random. They seem to be designed to threaten us serving with this important ability.”
Judge Jackson did not mention President Trump by name or cite any particular attacks on country judges. But her comments have repeatedly targeted judges who blocked key parts of his agenda, and even called out judges who opposed him to be fired each.
These calls sparked a rare responsibilities from Secretary John G. Roberts Jr. in March, explaining that “it is not an appropriate response to differences in opinion over a judicial decision.”
The threat of physical violence against judges is also on the rise, with judges facing bomb threats and an anonymously sending pizza delivery rash.
Strong comments by Judge Jackson were rare for justice. Since joining the court in 2022, she has focused much of her public figure on telling the personal story of her ascendance to become the first black woman on the Supreme Court.
In 2023, there was a prominent appearance in 2023 when the Supreme Court spoke from the pulpit at 16th Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham after the Supreme Court dropped positive actions in higher education and provided an explicit nod to her own role in history.
But on Thursday, she opened her remarks to a ballroom full of judges, lawyers and lawyers, saying she wanted to talk to the “elephant in the room.”
She noted that individual district court judges — some of whom face attacks on major cases dealing with Trump's actions and their work — face specific pressures in the legal system.
“It can take raw courage to stay steady in what the law requires,” she said.
Before his promotion to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, Judge Jackson served on the Washington District Court bench, with Judge James E. Boasberg, a particular target of Trump's rage, due to his ruling attempting to block Venezuelan immigrants from being deported. Both were neighbors.
Judge Jackson criticized the judges for targeting their work, saying these attacks would have a greater and more structural impact on the democratic system.
“A society where judges are routinely created to fear their lives for their own safety or their decisions, Judge Jackson said during his participation as keynote speaker at the First Circuit Judicial Conference. “An attack on judicial independence is a way of running by a country that is not free, not fair, and not rule of law.”
She said May 1 is National Law Day, marked elsewhere by lawyers' demonstrations protesting against Trump's attacks on legal professions. For this opportunity, she “takes this point of personal privilege to reaffirm the importance of judicial independence and condemn attacks on judges based on their rules,” she said.
Judge Jackson devoted most of her speeches to a less formal discussion about her life and memoirs released last year. However, she prepared a written statement about the rule of law that she said she wanted to deal with first.
“Having an independent judiciary defined as a judge who is indifferent to inappropriate pressures and decides and decides each case according to the rule of law is one of the key factors that will make a free and just society function,” she said.
Judge Jackson's remarks were greeted with a standing ovation.
Abby Vansikle Reports of contributions.
