Why the Supreme Court—and the Justice System—Need Ketanji Brown Jackson

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at Senate hearings last month. Still photo

There are many “hot takes” over the confirmation hearings of Ketanji Brown Jackson, who now looks likely to be confirmed by the Senate this week as the Supreme Court’s first African-American woman justice.

One of the arguments brought up by her critics during the hearings—the absurd belief that the fact that she has given below-guidelines sentencing for some charged with sex offenses (like most other judges) means that voting for Judge Jackson is “pro-pedophile”—especially struck home for me.

As a long-term activist and opponent of the sex offense registry, I believe that someone who merely viewed (but did not create) illicit photos should not serve an equivalent sentence to a murderer.

The unfair, sustained critique of Judge Jackson’s record has also included the short time she spent as a federal public defender. Critics seemed to feel that defending an individual charged with a crime is somehow less worthy of respect in our justice system than prosecuting that individual.

Like many others, I find that notion repugnant. But it also strikes a deeply personal chord.

In 2019, I was falsely accused of a theft charge in Florida. I spent 24 days behind bars, including the six-and-a-half days it took to extradite me from Ohio to South Florida, 1,100 miles from my home. I did not even know the full extent of the false accusations against me until I faced the judge in Florida.

Two years earlier, I was also hit with a restraining order after I staged a protest against Florida Sen. Lauren Book over her “tough-on-crime” policies related to the state’s sex offense registry.

I could not afford an adequate defense in either case, but many people worked behind the scenes to exonerate me. Jamie Benjamin and Gary Edinger of the Law Offices of Benjamin, Aaronson, Edinger & Patanzo, in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., worked tirelessly since 2017 to prevent Sen. Book from silencing my anti-registry activism.

When the Circuit Court judge in the restraining order case ruled against me, offering no reasons for doing so, I wanted to give up; but Benjamin and Edinger did not. Eventually, we won a resounding victory in the Florida appeals court on First Amendment grounds.

My arrest for alleged theft one year later was connected with that earlier case. I was accused of stealing auto manuals from a car lot, a charge I contend was manufactured as a result of my original protest against Sen. Book. Because I was an out-of-state defendant with no assets, finding a bail bondsman willing to bond out a Registered Person from another state was a challenge.

Ron Kleiner of the Law Office of Ron M. Kleiner arranged for my release on bond.

Earlier this year, prosecutors finally filed a nolle prosequi (do not prosecute) order in the case. With my false theft case dismissed, my lawyer Ron Kleiner is working on getting my name removed from the sex offense registry in Florida—a state that is fighting to keep me on their public pillory even though I have never lived there.

And here is where the double attack on Judge Jackson – the idea that she is “soft” on individuals charged with sex offenses, and that she is somehow suspect because she served as a public defender— really matters to me, and to those who believe in our system of justice.

As a Person Forced to Register, I was not a sympathetic client. The moment anyone on a registry is accused of a crime, there are already doubts of innocence.

Left to fend for myself against the State of Florida and two of their most powerful representatives, I would probably be sitting in a Florida prison right now or a civil commitment center.

David v Goliath

I felt like David taking on Goliath without even the benefit of a sling and a stone.

I was blessed to have had stellar legal representation. These attorneys became my sling and stone, and together, we helped to fell a Goliath. My attorneys were not public defenders, but took my case because they believed in me and my right to protest controversial post-release sanctions against Persons Forced to Register.

Law schools are expensive, and public defenders are paid so little.

Clients mock public defenders as public “pretenders.” Free legal representation is highly sought but few are willing to do the work.

But we also have a legal system in which the right to an adequate defense, regardless of whether you have enough money to pay for it, is protected by the Constitution, under the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright Supreme Court ruling over a half century ago.

Ketanji Brown Jackson and others in the defense bar have honored that commitment.

Her record shows she was able to put aside personal feelings to defend clients to the fullest extent of her ability and then, when she sat on the bench as a judge herself, to exercise empathy and humility in her judgments.

She deserves to sit on the highest court in the land.

Derek W. Logue is a Nebraska registrant and activist for the rights of returning citizens, and founder of the sex offense education and reform website OnceFallen.com.