Conservative SCOTUS Judge Torches Ketanji Brown Jackson in Extraordinary Rebuke: ‘Unfounded and Offensive’

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has issued an extraordinary rebuke to liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, calling her arguments “baseless and insulting.”

The broadside came after Jackson accused the court’s conservative majority of a “principled use of power” in hastening a ruling that would allow Louisiana Republicans to redraw their congressional map before the November midterm elections.

The question is whether the Supreme Court should have rushed last week’s ruling, bending its own timing rules to let the state change the map.

The decision means Louisiana can now suspend ongoing primaries so Republicans can redraw districts and dismantle one of the state’s two black-majority seats.

The conservative majority argued that the expedited procedure was justified as early voting in the primaries was already underway and the midterm elections were only six months away.

The losing party, the judges noted, had not shown any intention to file for rehearing, which is the standard reason for the 32-day waiting period.

But Jackson argued in fiery terms that this move compromised the appearance of neutrality, writing that it was “tantamount to approving Louisiana’s haste to interrupt the ongoing election to approve a new map.” The majority, she added, had “diving”[d] in battle’ in a way that was ‘unjustified and unwise’.

Alito countered that it was common sense to immediately send the case back to the lower court once the underlying constitutional issue, which was decided 6-3 last week in Louisiana v. Callais, had been resolved in Louisiana’s favor.

Judge Samuel Alito testifies about the court’s budget during a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on March 7, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court, speaks at the 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 2023 in Birmingham, Alabama

Joining Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, Alito wrote that “the dissent in this lawsuit raises allegations that cannot be left unanswered.”

He rejected Jackson’s two stated reasons for adhering to the 32-day waiting period — that the court should adhere to the rule and waiving it would compromise the appearance of impartiality — writing, “One is trivial at best, and the other is baseless and insulting.”

Alito fiercely refuted Jackson’s accusation that the majority had acted “on principle,” calling it “a baseless and completely irresponsible accusation.”

And in a sharp tone he wrote: ‘The dissident accuses the Court of ‘unchaining’.[ing]It is the rhetoric of the dissenters that knows no restraint.’

Monday’s order was unsigned, meaning it was issued in the court’s name, without identifying which justices were in the majority or how they voted.

Only Jackson publicly reported her dissent, which isolated her even from her two liberal colleagues, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who had joined her in dissenting from last week’s underlying 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.

Joe Biden embraces Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during a celebration of her confirmation as the first Black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, US, April 8, 2022

In that ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett formed the majority, with Kagan writing a dissent so forceful that she read it aloud from the bench and dropped the customary “respectfully” from her signature.

Jackson noted in her dissent that the court has waived the standard 32-day waiting period only twice in the past 25 years, underscoring how unusual Monday’s intervention was.

The clash is the latest outburst involving Jackson, appointed by Joe Biden in 2022, who has emerged as the court’s most strident solo dissent, repeatedly single-handedly torching majority decisions that hand victory to Donald Trump and the Republican Party.