Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has long faced scrutiny for her actions and partisan attacks from conservatives since she was nominated to the nation’s highest court by President Joe Biden in 2022. Now, her appearance at this year’s Grammy Awards has drawn Republican condemnation, leading the first Black woman justice to respond.
Jackson defends her Grammy Awards appearance
Jackson appeared on The View on Tuesday, where co-host Joy Behar asked her to respond to a call by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., that Jackson be investigated for her Grammy Awards appearance.
Blackburn tweeted about Jackson’s appearance at the awards show, during which several musicians criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration, with the senator saying, “Americans deserve a Supreme Court that is impartial and above political influence.” According to Blackburn, “When a Justice participates in such a highly politicized event, it raises ethical questions. We need an investigation into Justice Jackson’s ability to remain impartial.”
Jackson dismissed the suggestion that her appearance was partisan, saying on The View, as Mediate reported, “When you are in public life, criticism, you know, is part of the job.” As Jackson explained, “Another part of the job, actually my job, is public outreach and education. When the Justices are on recess, which is what we are doing right now, we really have an opportunity to go out into the community in various different ways.” Jackson noted she was in Los Angeles for a moot court event, “and it just so happened that I got nominated for this Grammy and I was already going to be there and I thought, this is a great opportunity to highlight my work in this way and to see what’s happening at the Grammys.”
The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg, herself a Grammy winner, reiterated the point.
“Let’s not forget the fact that you were nominated, and had no way of knowing what any one speech was going to be. I would say Ms. Blackburn is ‘snowflakian,’” Goldberg joked.
‘MORE experience at the time of her appointment than ANY other SCOTUS justice’
Jackson was nominated for a Grammy for the audiobook recording of her 2024 memoir, Lovely One. The title is a reference to her given name, Ketanji Onyika, which her parents were told meant “lovely one,” and the book discusses her family and her ascent through the legal profession to the Supreme Court. Since her nomination, Jackson has had to field partisan and often baseless challenges about her impartiality and her credentials, even though, as one recent social media post noted, “she had MORE experience at the time of her appointment than ANY other SCOTUS justice” when she was nominated.
As Blavity reported, several Grammy winners, including Super Bowl halftime show performer and awardee of the Album of the Year, Bad Bunny, used their time on stage to condemn the heavy-handed tactics of ICE under the Trump administration. With the administration employing aggressive tactics to arrest and detain people in its immigration sweeps, federal courts have been called to define the limits of such powers, which sets up possible Supreme Court cases regarding ICE’s authority. Contrary to claims that conservatives have made, Jackson wasn’t seen applauding anti-ICE comments during the Grammy broadcast.
Despite her extensive credentials and accomplishments, Jackson continues to face questions about her qualifications for the Supreme Court and her performance as a justice. On Tuesday, she gave a rare response to one of those challenges, emphasizing that she was doing the work of a Supreme Court justice, including engaging the public.
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