Justice Ginsburg was known as the Notorious RBG. Notoriety was a perfect adjective for Justice Ginsburg. She was famous, but not always in a good way. She was, well, notorious. And Justice Ginsburg leaned into that edgy persona–or did the edgy persona shape Ginsburg?
For some time, I’ve been thinking of the right nickname for Justice Jackson. It hit me today: the Laborious KBJ. The most salient feature of her tenure is making others do more work. And that work doesn’t actually serve any purpose, other than indulging Justice Jackson. She certainly isn’t changing any minds on the Court, and it isn’t clear she is changing any hearts outside the Court.
Consider a few data points. During oral argument, she speaks more than any other Justice by a significant number. According to Adam Feldman’s analysis from March, Justice Jackson spoke more than 53,000 words from the bench this term.
The next closest totals were Justices Sotomayor and Kagan with 35,000 and 30,000, respectively. If you total the words spoken by Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Thomas and Barrett (about 48,000), you still have less than Justice Jackson alone. Or you could total the words spoken by Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch (52,198) and it is still less than Justice Jackson.
Feldman measures the data in a different way. Justice Jackson had the highest share of words spoken in nine of the top ten longest arguments this term. More than 1 out of every 4 words spoken by a Justice comes from Justice Jackson.
That sort of dominance is not normal.
At least when Justice Breyer would ask questions for pages on end, it was entertaining. I now find myself skipping the audio whenever Justice Jackson starts asking a question. It just is not a good use of my time. The other Justices, alas, lack that luxury. As many reporters have observed, when Justice Jackson begins her lengthy questioning, the other Justices take deep breaths, roll their eyes, and disconnect.
Then there are Justice Jackson’s solo dissents. In a number of cases, she takes a position so far to the left that not even Justices Sotomayor and Kagan want to join her. Most recently, Justice Jackson was all alone in charging the majority with partisanship (more on that dissent shortly). And that dissent compelled Justice Alito to write, on very short notice, a concurrence that called her out. Our Circuit Justice has been very busy this week.
Justice Jackson also caused waves by slow-walking emergency petitions from the First Circuit. She took a long time to even call for a response in Libby v. Fectau, where the Justices ultimately granted emergency relief. Contrast this KBJ delay with how quickly Justice Alito granted an administrative stay and called for a response with the Mifepristone case. Like I said, our Circuit Justice is on point.
The Laborious KBJ. There you go.
In the spirit of my friend Ilya Shapiro, could you imagine if Justice Kagan had Justice Srinivasan as a wingman?
