In her short time on a federal appeals court, Judge Jackson has yet to issue a set of opinions reflecting legal philosophy. But her earlier rulings as a district judge in Washington were seen as liberal.
Her most notable decisions in district court included blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to hasten deportation, cutting grants for teen pregnancy prevention, and preventing a former White House adviser from testifying before Congress about President Donald Trump’s attempts to obstruct Russia’s investigation. .
“Presidents are not kings,” she wrote in 2019, ruling that Donald F. McGahn II, a former White House adviser, had to obey a congressional subpoena to testify about Mr. Trump’s actions. “They have no subjects bound by loyalty or blood, whose fate they have the right to dispose of.”
As Mr. Biden weighed his options from a short list of other candidates, Judge Jackson emerged as the front-runner among advisers, who saw her as a logical choice, in part because she had already won Republican support for her appellate court confirmation. . Merrick Garland, Mr. Biden’s Attorney General, whose own nomination to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama was thwarted by Republicans in 2016, was a former chief justice of the appeals court, and it was his decision to leave the bench to serve in Mr. Biden’s cabinet. this cleared the seat, which was filled by Judge Jackson.
The President’s decision to take her to the Court of Appeals was taken as a signal that if he were given the opportunity to name a candidate, she would be at or near the top of his list to fulfill his campaign promise during the Democratic primary to nominate. Black woman in court. Her experience as a public defender also made her an unusual but attractive choice for Mr. Biden.
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Leondra R. Krueger. The California Supreme Court justice has many of the qualities typical of U.S. Supreme Court candidates, but she is anomalous in at least one respect: FROMhe serves in the state court. Judge Kruger’s moderation might have made her mediation force in Washington.
“For Joe Biden, this legislation is nothing esoteric,” said Jeff Peck, a lobbyist who served as general counsel and director of personnel on the Senate Judiciary Committee when Mr. Biden was its chairman. “He wants to make sure there is a justice that understands how the law affects people in their daily lives.”
Last year, when a Republican senator asked during the confirmation process if she was concerned that her work as a public defender could bring violent criminals back to the streets, she said having that experience was an advantage.