'Especially vocal' Supreme Court Justice alienated from her colleagues: expert
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has been “especially vocal” against President Donald Trump’s agenda, and CNN Chief Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic believes it's alienated her from her colleagues on the high court.
The remarks came ahead of the final days of the Supreme Court’s term, according to CNN This Morning anchor Audie Cornish.
“We're watching closely as the justices prepare to release a flurry of rulings, decisions on birthright citizenship, LGBTQ+ books and schools, and how to keep minors from accessing porn websites,” Cornish said before introducing Biskupic.
“So one of the things I found interesting about the ruling yesterday was there's this little kind of battle in the comments,” Cornish said. “You had Ketanji brown Jackson kind of talking with Justice Thomas. They were going back and forth over an issue that at first I didn't think was actually related to Medicaid. Can you explain?”
“There has been so much drama in the writing between those two justices,” Biskupic said. “But let me just explain what upset Justice Jackson, who dissented yesterday, when the majority, with Clarence Thomas signing on, effectively endorsed the fact that South Carolina had pulled Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood because it does abortions.”
“The question was, could recipients of Medicaid and Planned Parenthood sue South Carolina for being denied recipients ability to have the physician of their choice?” the analyst said of the case.
“Justice Jackson's dissent said, if they aren't, you are undercutting this law not to let it be available for these women and Planned Parenthood to have a private right to sue,” Biskupic noted. “That was the actual issue: to sue. But Justice Jackson stepped back and said, 'You know, historically, look at how this law has been used.'”
Biskupic claimed “[Justice] Clarence Thomas took issue with that dissent, saying, you know, you're overreacting. This is not what's happening here and but this is exactly where the heat on this court has been joined, is that for Justice Jackson and her fellow liberals, this is not business as usual, [and] it should not be business as usual.”
“I think, Audie, we're going to we've seen that play out in other cases. She has been especially vocal. You'll remember she came on in 2022, succeeding Stephen Breyer, has not been a shy freshman.”
The expert noted that the justice's vocal positioning has caused even fellow liberal justices to separate themselves.
Watch the full interaction below or here.
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