Leftist Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson praised Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential run, potentially raising concerns over a violation of the court’s code of conduct.
During a Wednesday interview with The View, Jackson claimed that Harris’s achievement as the first woman of color to inherit a major party’s presidential nomination gave “a lot of people hope.”
“I’m not only so honored, but whenever we see someone moving into a position where no one has ever been, it gives a lot of people hope,” Jackson specifically claimed.
“I’m a first not because I’m the first person who could ever do this job, but because our times have changed, our society has changed,” she added.
Although Jackson didn’t explicitly state she would vote for Harris, her positive remarks could be seen as a partial endorsement, potentially edging toward a violation of the Supreme Court’s code of conduct.
The code mandates that justices refrain from participating in political activities, including acting as the leader of a political organization, making speeches for a candidacy or publicly endorsing or opposing a candidate for public office.
Jackson’s praise of Harris comes just days after she ironically backed President Joe Biden’s proposed binding ethics code.
“At least up to this point, I haven’t seen any good reason why there shouldn’t be binding rules. But so far, we’re not there,” Jackson told NPR when asked about her thoughts on the proposal.
Biden’s binding ethics code appeared to target Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who have faced partisan criticism from politicians and the legacy media.
Most recently, the liberal New York Times dubiously accused Alito of flying an inverted American flag in the weeks following the Jan. 6 protests, and the “Appeal to Heaven” flag in the summer of 2023.
The newspaper claimed, without citing explicit evidence, that these flags raised concerns about Alito’s potential bias in cases related to the protest and President Donald Trump.
Similarly, Thomas has been accused of bias due to his wife’s conservative activism. Leftist non-profit ProPublica has released several negative reports against Thomas, amounting to what some conservatives called a smear campaign.
The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to Headline USA’s request for comment on Jackson’s remarks.