Right wing Republicans and MAGA supporters must be overjoyed witnessing the differences between Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor. It’s bad enough when the conservative members of the bench carry the day but it’s a deepening concern when the liberal bloc disagrees with one another. That issue was sharpened recently when Jackson, the most junior justice, wrote a solo dissent against the Trump administration’s plan to downsize the government. The decision was 8 to 1, leaving Jackson alone in her challenge against the reshaping of the government and the onslaught of democracy.
“For some reason, this court sees fit to step in now and release the president’s wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation,” Jackson wrote in her nine-page dissent. “In my view, this decision is not only, truly, unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless.”
This is not the first time she’s stood alone, and it probably won’t be the last, and, of course we champion this courageous resolve, in the same way we back Chris Smalls in his campaign to bring aid to the starving people of Gaza.
It was most disconcerting to learn that Justice Sotomayor, the senior liberal, agreed with the majority decision, which she deemed “consistent with applicable law,” while giving a nod to Jackson’s charge that the decision was “inconsistent with congressional mandates.”
Creating dissent and mayhem are part of Trump’s playbook, and we next have to be wary of the tumult around gerrymandering in states like Texas, an issue we will take up next week. Meanwhile Justice Jackson, you may stand alone in SCOTUS, but those last two letters “US”, means we got your back.