WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Monday that the risks being seen as political in the wake of a major voting rights decision.
She spoke after writing a solo dissent from the court’s decision allowing Louisiana to move quickly to use new maps after the a majority-Black district and weakened the Voting Rights Act.
鈥淧ublic confidence is really all the judiciary has,鈥� she said at a talk before the American Law Institute in Washington, D.C.
鈥淓veryone believes the court system is outside the political sphere. I think that means it’s incumbent on us to do things, to act in ways, that shore up public confidence,鈥� she said.
Polling has shown public trust in the Supreme Court at historic lows in recent years, and Chief Justice John Roberts has a perception that the justices are 鈥減olitical actors,” calling it a misunderstanding.
Jackson has become a frequent dissenter on the Supreme Court, joining her liberal colleagues last month to oppose the 6-3 decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act and later writing for herself to protest an order allowing Louisiana to use new maps even though early primary voting had already begun. She said the court had 鈥渟pawned chaos鈥� amid a fierce nationwide redistricting battle.
Three of her conservative colleagues on the court forcefully disagreed, calling her criticism 鈥渂aseless” and saying accusations of partisanship aren’t justified. The alternative, they wrote, would have been to allow an election under a map found to be unconstitutional.
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