Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is already facing calls for recusal in one of the nation’s high court’s majors cases because of where she earned her bachelor’s and law degrees.
After Senate confirmation hearings next week, legal ethicists say the Harvard College and Harvard Law School alumna should step aside in the affirmation action case SCOTUS is slated to hear later this year that involves her alma mater.
Not only did she attend the university, she also sits on its Board of Overseers that “provides counsel to the University’s leadership on priorities, plans, and strategic initiatives,” its website reads.
According to ABC News, some legal ethicists say the choice is clear for her to recuse herself for this case.
“It would be profoundly inappropriate for a jurist to sit on a case for a school in which she has held a governing position and a role in setting institutional policies,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote in an article earlier this month.
“For that reason, Jackson will be asked in her confirmation hearing whether she will recuse herself from the Harvard case.”
If you remember, the case in question was brought the high court by a group of Asian American students that have accused Harvard University of illegally rejecting them at higher rates because of their race.
Judge Jackson’s term on the Board ends May 26, a Harvard spokesperson said. The case would be brought before the court seven months later, according to the news outlet.
The calls for her recusal also come amid similar calls for Justice Clarence Thomas whose wife admitted to attending the January 6 Capitol riot and has connections to far-right groups being subpoenaed by a Congressional Committee investigating the deadly violence.
In one related Supreme Court order, Justice Thomas was the sole dissenting vote that ultimately cleared the way for some of former President Donald Trump‘s records to be released to the committee as part of its investigation.
Jackson made history earlier this year, becoming the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court.
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