Ketanji Brown Jackson to be sworn in tomorrow

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Good chance she'll end up my favorite on the court.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

And just like that, African Americans are over-represented on the Supreme Court by nearly double their actual proportion of the US population.

No? It's about right now.

22.222....% of the Supreme Court, and they make up 14.2% of the US population per last Census. So proportionately that would equal just one justice.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You know, I think KBJ may actually be the first ever evangelical on the court.

I've seen Rehnquist sometimes cited as such, but he was actually a lifelong Lutheran and belonged to the ELCA, although I'd imagine if he had been born 30 years later he would've converted to a more conservative Lutheran church like Missouri Synod had he not just become an outright evangelical or (as is kind of often the case for "intellectual" conservatives like him now) converted to Catholicism.

I guess you could argue that Hugo Black was sort of an evangelical in terms of denominational affiliation stretched to today but that seems a bit odd since people would associate an evangelical of the era to be more someone like William Jennings Bryan (even though he was actually a Presbyterian and his affiliation traces to the mainline PCUSA today.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Supreme Court isn't supposed to be or intended to be demographically representative anyway. It's just an interesting trivia bit.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Anyway, I’m not sure how much of a chance we’ll have to see whether Jackson is more moderate or more to the left unless we start getting some 7-2 or 8-1 decisions.

One test might be the case about a web designer refusing to create a website advertising a same-sex wedding. It's obvious who's going to win and it's just a retread of the wedding cake case but that one was 7-2, Breyer and Kagan ruled in the majority and RBG was still on the Court then. Sotomayor is thus the last remaining dissenter. Jackson may join her for another 7-2 or she could join the majority for an 8-1.