WASHINGTON (AP) — During a Monday address, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned that the Supreme Court could appear politically motivated following a significant voting rights ruling.
Her comments came after she penned a lone dissenting opinion regarding the court’s decision to permit Louisiana to rapidly implement new electoral maps. The court had previously eliminated a majority-Black district and diminished the Voting Rights Act’s strength.
“Public confidence is really all the judiciary has,” she remarked during her presentation to the American Law Institute in Washington, D.C.
“Everyone 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,” she stated.
Recent polling indicates that public faith in the Supreme Court has reached historically low levels, while Chief Justice John Roberts has previously expressed concern about perceptions of justices as “political actors.”
Jackson has frequently dissented from rulings made by the court’s conservative majority, including her solitary opposition to an order permitting Louisiana to utilize new maps despite early voting already being underway. She argued the court had “spawned chaos” during an intense national redistricting conflict.
Three conservative justices on the court strongly disagreed with her position, describing her remarks as “baseless” and arguing that claims of partisanship lack merit. They contended that the only other option would have been allowing an election to proceed under maps deemed unconstitutional.
