Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, will bring fresh perspectives to the position if confirmed. It can serve for decades. But there is no reason to believe that she can do anything to change the court’s conservative trajectory in the short term.
Her replacement for Judge Stephen G. Breuer would change Liberal to Liberal and would do nothing change the underlying dynamics of the current court, which is dominated by six Republican appointees. At any rate, in an institution that values seniority, the three-member liberal wing of the court may lose power.
It often takes years for new judges to get back on their feet. “For the first three years, I was scared to death,” said Judge Breyer, who came to court in 1994. 2006 interview.
Judge Clarence Thomas, who joined the court in 1991, said he asked his new colleagues how long it would take to succeed. “They told a person that under normal circumstances it takes three to five years to adjust to the court,” Judge Thomas said. said in 1996.
He added that his own circumstances confirmation hearingpushed him to the “outer limits” of that period.
Ratings have not changed over time. “Such an outstanding intellect, as Brandeis said, it took four or five years to feel that he understood the legal problems of the court,” Judge Felix Frankfurter wrote of Judge Louis D. Brandeis, who sat on the court from 1916 to 1939.
Still having a black woman on the court can change the mindset of other judges in subtle ways.
Judge Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016once reflected that the mere presence of Judge Thurgood Marshall, the first black judge, had changed the way his colleagues handled some cases in their private conferences.
“Marshall can be a persuasive force just by sitting there,” Judge Scalia told Juan Williams in an interview for Judge Marshall’s biography. “He wouldn’t have to open his mouth to influence the nature of the conference and how seriously the conference would take racial issues.”