Clinical Congress welcomed a perspective from outside surgery Sunday when Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson of the Supreme Court of the United States joined ACS Executive Director and CEO Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, for the Olga M. Jonasson Lecture.
Justice Jackson earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University and went on to serve as a federal public defender and federal judge before becoming the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court in 2022.
Memoir Reading
The lecture largely followed a Q&A format between Justice Jackson and Dr. Turner, beginning with Justice Jackson reading from her 2024 memoir, Lovely One.
“I had to keep reminding myself this moment was real,” she said at the start of a passage about her swearing-in to the Supreme Court.
As she recounted the ceremony, Justice Jackson described taking the oath with her hand on “the Harlan Bible, donated to the court in 1906 by Justice John Marshall Harlan.”
To her, the moment marked an exceptional departure from the lives of her parents, “who had come of age in the segregated South of the 1950s and 1960s”; she described it as “the embodiment of our ancestors’ dreams, [and] a position Justice Harlan never imagined possible for someone like me.”
Mentors and Role Models
After reading, Justice Jackson sat with Dr. Turner for a conversation that touched on Justice Jackson’s career path. “There were critical early influences I would not have known at the time were significant,” she said, including her father’s choice to complete law school in Miami, Florida, when she was young.
As a result, she “decided to be a lawyer very early on,” and spent her high school years participating in speech and debate teams, where she “developed a sense of resilience and fortitude” and “the ability to speak to people.”
She also identified as mentors “the three judges at each level of the federal judicial system” for whom she served as a law clerk, calling them “the most pivotal actual mentors.”
Just as important was a role model she never met. “In middle school, I learned about Judge Constance Baker Motley, the first Black women to be appointed to the federal bench [and] argue in the Supreme Court of the US,” she said. “I thought, ‘I can be a judge, not just a lawyer. There’s a woman who is doing this!’”
Disagreeing Without Being Disagreeable
She emphasized that her legal career has trained her “to apply what the law says, what the precedents are,” rather than her personal opinions.
“Profound disagreements can exist even between people who respect each other,” Dr. Turner said. “How you navigate those scenarios?”
Justice Jackson replied, “That is the bread and butter of what I do.”
She explained that each Supreme Court Justice works with “young people, sort of like your residents,” who are just out of law school, and research existing law and articulate possible viewpoints. “So, by the time the public knows about a case, we have a good idea of what we think.”
The Justices then hear oral arguments, providing another opportunity to consider different perspectives. “We get to hear what other Justices are thinking, so I am listening to questions very carefully,” Justice Jackson said. “Sometimes I hear a question, and I think, ‘Wait a minute, that’s not how I’m thinking about this case.’”
Oral arguments are followed by private votes among the Justices and further deliberations. “Sometimes we might have disagreements even within the same side, because the law is nuanced and complicated,” she said. “That is how you end up with concurring opinions or multiple dissents.”
This thoughtful, formal process offers a model for “having disagreements without being disagreeable,” she said. “Working closely with people who have different views is a wonderful model for our country.”
Dissent, Today and Tomorrow
She writes dissents with other audiences in mind. “My colleagues know my opinions, so it’s not written for them, and the parties in the case are focused on the bottom line. So, I am speaking to the American people,” she said, with both present and future generations in mind. “You have the idea in your mind that as a dissenter, someday people may agree with your opinion, and it will become majority rule.”
Still, she said she does not focus on how history might view her work. “I have to put on blinders and do each case at a time… and leave it to future generations to know.”
Close to Surgery
Justice Jackson’s husband, Patrick Jackson, MD, FACS, chief of the Division of General Surgery at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, attended the lecture.
Early in their careers, Dr. Jackson sought a position in Washington, DC, so his wife could pursue a clerkship there. When an interviewer asked why he was interested in relocating, Justice Jackson explained, “He said, ‘I need to be in Washington, DC, because my wife is going to be on the Supreme Court one day.’”
Concluding with Encouragement
The session ended with words of encouragement for the surgeons in the audience. “You do work that is very important to so many people, so just keep going,” Justice Jackson said before receiving an enthusiastic round of applause.
