U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Delivers James A. Thomas Lecture
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke to a capacity crowd of Yale Law School students, faculty, and staff on April 13 at Yale’s Battell Chapel.
Jackson delivered the 2025–26 Thomas Lecture, titled “Equity and Exigency: A First-Principles Solution for the Supreme Court’s Emergency Docket.”
Yale Law School Dean Cristina M. Rodríguez ’00 introduced Jackson by recounting her upbringing as the daughter of public school teachers. She found an early intellectual home participating in speech and debate, where she learned to hone her voice and learned how to reason and write.
“Justice Jackson’s career embodies many of the same values that animate this institution: a rigorous, scholarly, analytical bent, a dedication to public service, and a steadfast commitment to the rule of law,” Rodríguez said.
Jackson received her A.B. in government, magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1992. After a brief stint as a reporter for Time magazine, she went on to Harvard Law School, graduating in 1996.
She served as a law clerk for Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Judge Bruce M. Selya of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, and Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court.
After three years in private practice, she worked as an attorney at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, as an assistant federal public defender in Washington, D.C., and then again in private practice. She served as a vice chair and commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission from 2010 to 2014. In 2012, President Barack Obama nominated her to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where she served from 2013 to 2021. She was appointed to the Defender Services Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States in 2017, and the Supreme Court Fellows Commission in 2019. President Joseph Biden appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2021 and then nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 2022. She took her seat on June 30, 2022.
Jackson’s lecture focused on the evolution of the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, sometimes known as the shadow docket, where petitioners seek immediate relief from the Court. The topic, she said, “has recently burst into the public zeitgeist, generating a substantial amount of controversy.”
When she was a Supreme Court clerk for retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer — the justice she would later replace — Jackson said the emergency docket consisted mainly of capital cases. In recent years, the Court has shown a willingness to grant emergency motions in cases brought by the government, often before lower courts have fully considered the case on the merits and made a ruling.
“I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I would like to be a catalyst for change,” Jackson said at the conclusion of her lecture. “My hope is that this speech opens up a conversation and that you and all of us will carefully examine the operation of the Supreme Court’s emergency docket and suggest reforms with an eye toward ensuring equal justice under the law.”
Following her lecture, Jackson joined Rodríguez for a conversation about her life and professional journey, public service, and work on the Court. That journey continues to fill her with gratitude, she said. After she was confirmed to the Supreme Court, she spoke from the South Lawn of the White House and noted that in her family, “it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.” She told the audience that she felt it was an honor and privilege to sit on the highest court in the land.
“I feel extraordinarily grateful for the opportunity to do this work, to serve the American people, to be in the arc of history that allows someone like me, from my background, whose parents were subjugated to segregation, to be able to sit as I do, listening to the claims, evaluating the law, and doing my best to serve,” Jackson said.
Jackson spoke with Rodríguez about writing well-known dissents in cases including SFFA v. Harvard and Trump v. United States, and her thought process in deciding whether to dissent.
“I think dissent is one of the most extraordinary aspects of the American legal tradition. It is an embodiment of one of our core values, which is freedom of expression and tolerance of minority views,” Justice Jackson said. “It’s extraordinary that we have a system that allows for those who disagree to voice their disagreement in sometimes very strident ways. I think the court models, in a way, the kind of society we should want. That people who have different views can articulate them. And I take advantage of it.”
Asked about what she hoped her legacy would be, Jackson told the audience she hopes to be known for being a good communicator.
“I think that if I can inspire young people to use their voices, no matter where they’re from or in whatever capacity, that would be extraordinary,” Jackson said. “And I would also like to inspire people to work hard, to understand that nothing in life comes easy. And that I left everything on the field.”
The James A. Thomas Lecture was established by Yale Law School students in 1989 to honor Associate Dean James A. Thomas ’64, to recognize scholars whose work addresses the concerns of communities or groups currently marginalized with the legal academy or society at large.
