OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
In what will come as a surprise to no one, Democrats and their ilk in the mainstream media are treating Democrat-appointed Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson differently than Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump.
Jackson is working on a memoir titled “Lovely One,” which will detail her journey to becoming “the first Black woman appointed to the court.”
“Mine has been an unlikely journey. But the path was paved by courageous women and men in whose footsteps I placed my own, road warriors like my own parents, and also luminaries in the law, whose brilliance and fortitude lit my way. This memoir marries the public record of my life with what is less known. It will be a transparent accounting of what it takes to rise through the ranks of the legal profession, especially as a woman of color with an unusual name and as a mother and a wife striving to reconcile the demands of a high-profile career with the private needs of my loved ones,” Jackson said in a statement released by Penguin Random House.
Of course, the media is already giving her glowing reviews and praise:
“My hope is that the fullness of my journey as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, litigator, and friend will stand as a testament for young women, people of color, and dreamers everywhere,” Justice Jackson stated.https://t.co/d2u7AbLL3X
— The Black Wall Street Times (@TheBWSTimes) January 5, 2023
Jackson, who made history last year as the first Black woman to join the Supreme Court, will chronicle her life and career as well as her rise to the Supreme Court in her first book. #ESSENCE https://t.co/SisVhrw6EY
— ESSENCE (@Essence) January 7, 2023
The Supreme Court Justice's book's title comes from the English translation of Ketanji Onyika, the name suggested by an aunt who at the time was a Peace Corps worker in West Africa. https://t.co/iGraduAjjJ
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) January 9, 2023
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is writing a memoir https://t.co/wx8KQke8DJ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 8, 2023
In April 2021, Justice Barrett signed a book deal with Penguin Random House — the same publisher as Justice Jackson — but was treated much differently.
Washington Post reporters Ann Marimow and Emma Brown alleged that Barrett’s financial disclosures “come at a tense moment for the court after the leak of a draft majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., that would overturn the long-standing constitutional right to obtain an abortion.”
They also implied that Barrett was using a loophole in ethics rules because “Federal ethics rules limit justices to ‘outside earned income’ of no more than about $30,000 per year, . . . [b]ut book-writing payments do not count as ‘outside earned income,’ allowing justices to strike lucrative contracts with publishers.”
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick charged that Barrett had broken some rule with “unethical” behavior because she had not been present on the Court long enough to ink a book deal.
“Supreme Court justices probably shouldn’t be getting multimillion-dollar cash advances to do anything at all….As Richard Painter, who was the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, put it in an email to me, “In 1969 Justice Fortas was pressured to resign from the Supreme Court over a $20,000 payment from a businessman who was later indicted. Too bad the businessman didn’t own a publishing house. By today’s standards Justice Fortas should have done a $2 million book deal instead.” . . . The ethical line is surely a tricky one (another reason for enforceable ethics rules!). But while it’s true that other sitting justices have made money off book advances and sales, at least those big-ticket books were autobiographies,” she wrote.
Chicago Tribune’s Timothy O’Brien whined that Barrett getting the book deal proved the “Supreme Court’s ethics problems” and that “a lot of hand-wringing has accompanied Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s $2 million book deal.”
And the cherry on top: hundreds of employees at Penguin Random House signed an open letter signed demanding that it cancel the deal. The publisher, thankfully, refused to back down.
But those same employees have no issue with Jackson getting a book deal.
Barrett has remained classy and has not taken any shots at Jackson, the publisher, or members of the media who have slandered her since she was appointed to the Supreme Court.
While speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, Barrett reminisced about her 2020 experience and how quickly her confirmation process went.
“It just happened very quickly,” Barrett told an audience, noting that her hearings had occurred on a “compressed timeline” and that she “was scrambling” to set up chambers, prepare for oral arguments and read briefs.
Barrett also gave KBJ some advice, saying that becoming a public figure is “not easy” and that the Court offered a slew of resources to help the transition.
