The Supreme Court justice who famously declared that American presidents are not kings

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Ketanji Brown Jackson made history in 2022 as the first Black woman to join the Supreme Court. Before her elevation, she built a career defined by diverse roles, including federal public defender and sentencing commissioner, eventually delivering a landmark ruling that checked the scope of executive power in the United States.

Born in Washington, D.C., in 1970, Jackson was raised in Miami, Florida, where she excelled in speech and debate. Her academic path led to Harvard University, where she studied government and wrote an honors thesis on the coercive nature of plea bargaining. She later earned her law degree from Harvard, where she held a leadership role on the Law Review, before completing three prestigious federal clerkships, including one for Justice Stephen Breyer.

Jackson’s professional trajectory balanced private practice with significant public service. Between 2003 and 2005, she worked for the United States Sentencing Commission, returning in 2010 as a commissioner and vice chair. During this tenure, she helped make the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act retroactive, which addressed sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses. She also served as a federal public defender, a background that distinguishes her from many of her peers on the bench.

Her judicial career began in 2013 on the federal district court in Washington, D.C. It was there she presided over a high-profile dispute involving former White House counsel Don McGahn. When the Trump administration invoked executive privilege to block his testimony, Jackson rejected the claim, famously noting that the nation’s history proves presidents are not kings. After being confirmed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021, she continued to navigate complex questions regarding executive authority, including the release of documents related to the January 6th Capitol attack.

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