Ketanji Brown Jackson Gets Snippy With Lawyer During Hearing On Race-Based Districts

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U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson snapped at Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguinaga on Wednesday over his opposition to race-based districts.

The court heard oral arguments in the case, Louisiana v. Callais, which challenges Louisiana’s two majority-black districts in its 2024 congressional map. Jackson interjected and defended the race-based districts.

“I don’t understand why your answer to Justice Kagan’s question about is this a compelling state interest is ‘no.’ The answer is obviously yes that you have an interest in remedying the effects of racial discrimination that we identify using this tool. Whether you go too far in your remedy is another issue, right?”

“Your honor, I think step zero in all of these cases. It was obviously step zero in the Robinson litigation is the plaintiffs came in and said, ‘we want another majority black district,'” Aguinaga said.

“I thought they came in and said, ‘we’re not receiving equal electoral opportunity because our votes are being diluted,” Jackson interrupted.

Aguinaga argued that the plaintiffs indeed asked for a race-based district, prompting Jackson to interrupt him and aggressively dispute his argument. Jackson argued that the majority-black districts are a “remedy” for black voters not having “equal electoral opportunity.”

“That’s the same way as saying we want another majority-black district,” Aguinaga said.

“No it’s not!” Jackson interrupted.

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