U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson lauded the role of dissenting opinions in front of a Fairbanks audience Tuesday. A liberal justice, Jackson has become known for writing scathing dissents since 2022, when she joined the court, which has a 6-3 conservative supermajority.
“It is extraordinary that we have a system that allows for people who disagree, even at the highest levels, to explain their disagreement, to tell everyone how they think the case should’ve come out, and to essentially lay down a marker for future generations in the hopes that, at some point in time, people will agree with their view,” she said.
Jackson, the first Black woman to sit on the nation’s top court, stopped in Interior Alaska as part of University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions and Lifelong Learning program. Using court-vetted questions, retired public radio journalist Robert Hannon hosted the on-stage talk with her inside the Davis Concert Hall at the UAF Fine Arts Complex.
At the event, the Biden-appointee also reiterated her recent public criticism of the court’s increasing use of its emergency docket to issue orders on big cases. She said the practice lacks transparency and can warp the work of lower courts as they continue to consider the cases on their merits.
“In total, I think it is a net-negative for the court to be evaluating issues on the emergency docket,” she said. “And I think we should do so very rarely.”
The 1996 Harvard Law graduate also took a question about how her history as a federal public defender informs her jurisprudence, saying that experience mostly influenced how she went about her job when she was a trial court judge. She said being a public defender showed her how often criminal defendants felt confused, slighted or disrespected by the legal process.
“And it was impeding their ability to reform,” she said.
Jackson said, later, as a district court judge, she wrote out what she wanted to say and explain to defendants in a script. She served as U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2021.
“Because when and if I sent them to jail, I wanted them to know that it’s not because I was mad or because I was doing something to them. It’s because of their behavior, because of what they had done,” she said.
That answer, along with her answers to questions about dissent and the emergency docket, capped off the evening’s conversation. She fielded questions from Hannon about those topics after discussing her life and memoir with the retired KUAC journalist for most of the event.
In a brief interview afterward, Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Carney, also a former public defender, said she seconded Jackson’s thoughts on how the legal system can alienate defendants.
“Courts are designed to be scary, and we really need to make sure that the people who are appearing in front of us understand what’s going on,” she said.
Carney also said she thinks Jackson’s personal journey, like setting sights on a judicial appointment as early as grade school, could resonate with Alaskans.
“Dream big,” she said. “We really are part of America. We can do the same things they can do Outside here – we can probably do them better because we’re in Alaska. But, you know, those big themes are true for all of us.”
Jackson’s visit was highly anticipated and filled the 900-seat concert hall to the brim. Its conclusion drew loud applause, but the end also came abruptly and without a clear reason, which UAF Summer Sessions Director Michelle Bartlett said “has never happened before.”
The atmosphere
Badger Street Jazz, a local band, played outside the venue as the line to get inside started to wrap around the building almost two hours before Jackson took the stage.
“I’m always inspired when I have an opportunity to see an African-American female of prominence,” said retired UAF Patty Center Facilities Manager Tyrone Burkhead, who stood near the front of that line.
He said he came because he closely follows Jackson’s opinions – and that he wants to see her outlast some of the other justices.
“She understands what civil rights is all about. It seems like, at this particular time in society, our Supreme Court is kind of looking the opposite direction and favoring extreme conservative ideology,” he said.
According to a message sent to attendees, people had claimed all the tickets for the event, which were free, about two minutes after they went live June 15 at 10 a.m. The message says the waitlist hit 800 people within an hour.
Burkhead was put on that waitlist, despite hopping online to reserve a ticket the minute they became available. This week, the day before the event, in fact, he received an email saying a spot had opened up.
“I was happy,” he said. “Really happy.”
Once doors opened, Burkhead and the rest of the crowd entered to go through security at the UAF Fine Arts Complex much tighter than the average weekday. Attendees had to show their tickets and photo ID and pass through metal detectors temporarily installed in the lobby area before taking seats inside the concert hall.
Bags were prohibited. The security measures limited personal items to phones, wallets, keys and newly purchased copies of Jackson’s memoir, “Lovely One,” which was being sold for $35 at a booth next to the venue. a young adult adaptation was selling for $20.99.
According to financial disclosures, as of last year, Jackson had earned about $4 million total in book deals since Penguin Random House published her memoir in 2024.
She started off her Fairbanks appearance by reading from it, recounting the moment she took her constitutional and judicial oaths.
“Only one generation after my mother and father had experienced the spirit-crushing effects of racial segregation in housing, school and transportation while growing up in Florida, their daughter was standing on the threshold of history,” she read aloud.
Audience members were instructed to snap photos only within the first couple minutes of the event. Hannon and Jackson then discussed her life and her book for about 45 minutes before shifting to the other subject matter for about 10 minutes.
Supreme Court staff screened questions submitted by the public prior to the event, according to Bartlett, the UAF Summer Sessions director. She said that’s also how things worked when Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor talked at UAF in 2016.
“Because of the court and matters before the court, there’s certain things that they cannot discuss. They just can’t. So people submitted, I think, well over 50 questions, and it was submitted to the court, and then they were vetted,” she said.
The roughly 55-minute conversation marked the 136th public appearance of current or retired Supreme Court justices so far this year, according to a tally maintained by nonpartisan watchdog group Fix the Court. But the event ended suddenly, when Bartlett approached the stage, saying court staff told her Jackson needed to attend to something.
Bartlett addressed the audience afterward, saying an event getting cut short in that manner “has never happened before.”
“I have no idea what it is, and to all of you who came out, stood in line, whatever you did to make it in here tonight, I am ever so grateful, and I apologize,” she said. “But didn’t we have a glorious time?”
Applause followed. A Supreme Court spokesperson didn’t respond to emailed questions seeking more information about why Jackson had to leave abruptly in time for this story.