'More than any other': How one Supreme Court justice is proving to be a relentless Trump foe
Republicans have had much better luck than Democrats when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the United States' last nine presidential elections — 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 — Republicans have a 6-3 High Court supermajority. President Donald Trump appointed three justices during his first term, while former President Joe Biden only appointed one: Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is the Court's third Black justice.
Jackson is the Court's first Black female justice, although two Black male justices were confirmed before her: the late Thurgood Marshall and far-right Clarence Thomas.
Barack Obama appointee Sonia Sotomayor is the justice whose dissents typically receive the most media coverage. But in an article published on October 4, The Guardian's Ed Pilkington stresses that Jackson is proving to be a strong dissenter as well.
"On Monday, (October 6), the nine justices of America's top court will assemble at the start of a new judicial term," Pilkington explains. "They will share the usual niceties, make congenial small talk, then get down to business. It will be a tough time for Jackson, who has carved out a role as the 'great dissenter' and has been challenging the conservative bloc that now controls the Court. Outnumbered and outgunned by the right-wing supermajority, (Jackson) and her two other liberal colleagues have had to watch from the sidelines as critical constitutional laws that have been settled for half a century have been torn up by the very court on which they sit."
Pilkington adds, "So far, the list of casualties includes the right to an abortion, affirmative action, environmental protections, voting rights and much more."
During the Summer of 2025, the Guardian journalist observes, the High Court's GOP-appointed supermajority "overturned lower court rulings and handed Trump almost everything he wants" — including "the ability to mass fire federal employees, summarily deport migrants to war-torn countries, withhold billions of dollars in funds already approved by Congress, and more." And Jackson, according to Pilkington, was a strong dissenter.
"Last term," Pilkington observes, "Jackson wrote 10 dissents — more than any other justice, including the ever-vociferous, far-right Clarence Thomas with nine. In her dissents, Jackson has piercingly criticized the Court under Chief Justice John Roberts for undermining America's foundations as a country of rules: no one is above the law, and everyone has equal access to justice."
Read Ed Pilkington's full article for The Guardian at this link.
