Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recently confessed that the “state of democracy” keeps her up at night—and conservatives argue it’s her activism, not democracy, that should truly alarm the nation.
During a light-hearted Q&A at an Indianapolis Bar Association event, the liberal justice fielded rapid-fire questions before turning serious. “I would say the state of our democracy,” Jackson replied when asked what haunts her at night. “I’m really very interested in getting people to focus and to invest and to pay attention to what is happening in our country and in our government,” she added to applause.
But critics quickly took note of her remarks, highlighting what they consider her ideological overreach. One X user quipped, “What keeps me up [at] night is knowing that we have unqualified Justices like Jackson on the SCOTUS.” Another added, “Having someone like her on the Supreme Court is what keeps me up at night.”
Many slam her dissents as emotional rather than faithful to the rule of law. After her lone dissent in the birthright citizenship ruling—which warned that “our beloved constitutional Republic will be no more”—Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett fired back: “We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.”
The criticism raises a critical question: should Americans worry about the state of democracy or the state of judges who appear to prioritize emotion over precedent?
