Ketanji Brown Jackson Was a Public Defender. Here's Why That's a Great Thing.

[swag]

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/04/06/ketanji-brown-jackson-was-a-public-defender-heres-why-thats-a-great-thing/

by Garrett Epps
April 6, 2022

Excerpt:

. . .

This is the lesson of time spent in a public defender’s office: The government can do almost anything it wants, and the courts, our supposed watchdogs of liberty, will usually go along after the fact. Government can and will spend handsomely to make itself appear powerful, and if that incidentally ruins the lives of the powerless, no one with power will particularly care. Without someone smart, determined, and independent to speak for them, those targeted by the government stand little chance of escaping the net, whether they are innocent or guilty.

I learned that however it is phrased, the motto of every good defense lawyer might be: “I speak for this person, whatever their sins. By the oath I swore when I entered the bar, I will make sure that the government is held to its own laws. While I am able to speak, the government will treat my client as a human being and not a thing.” Without a zealous defense, criminal “justice” is merely brute force wielded against the powerless, accompanied by the insufferable self-praise of empowered brutes.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, in her two years with the FPD, represented, among others, accused terrorists held at Guantánamo, Cuba. These men are human, and our own Supreme Court has said that they have rights under the Constitution, and those rights mean nothing without legal protection. I would have been proud to sign my name to briefs testing their confinement, not because I liked them but because the government and the courts must follow the law.

My first assignment at the Albuquerque FPD was to write a petition for review to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the jury that had convicted our client (who was serving time in federal prison) had been improperly polled, rendering his conviction unconstitutional. The justices denied our petition without comment.

At summer’s end, however, I got a letter with a Bureau of Prisons inmate number in its return address. The client whose petition the Court had rejected wanted me to know how much he appreciated what I had written for him. All the guys in his cell block, he said, agreed that it was the best certiorari petition they had ever read.

. . . more

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/04/06/ketanji-brown-jackson-was-a-public-defender-heres-why-thats-a-great-thing/

[exboyfil]

1. We used to admire those who respected the rights of everyone

even those accused of the most awful crimes or those who supported unpopular but just causes with violence. For example John Adams defending British soldiers or his son defending the crew of the Amistad.

Now between the criticism leveled at Nina Morrison and Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, we get to see how far the Republican party has descended. It even occured during 2016 election with Hillary Clinton's appointed legal representation.

[Hoyt]

2. +1. Thought that was a big deal when she was first nominated.

[FM123]

3. Yes!

Truly a thankless job.