Ketanji Brown Jackson Gets Suddenly 'Worried' About Supreme Court Decision
Ketanji Brown Jackson became "worried" that the arguments being made in a major Supreme Court case echoed those in another landmark case that was decided nearly 60 years ago.The High Court heard oral arguments Wednesday morning in United States v.
Skrmetti, a major case challenging a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors. The law is being challenged by three families and a doctor.
The plaintiffs are backed by the Biden administration.The plaintiffs argue that the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which says that people must be treated fairly and equally under the law, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and other characteristics.
On Wednesday, Tennessee's Solicitor General Matt Rice argued that the law is aimed at the purpose of treatment and not at sex.Jackson said previous Supreme Court precedents could be undermined if rather than asking for evidence from the state, the justices simply said, "There are lots of good reasons for this policy and who are we, as the court, to say otherwise.""I'm worried that we're undermining the foundations of some of our bedrock equal protection cases," she said.About an hour and a half into oral arguments, Jackson said, "I'm suddenly quite worried about the role of the court questions and the constitutional allocation of authority concerns."Jackson said between nervous chuckles that her "real concern" was that the same types of scientific arguments were made in Loving v.
