Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson attended the Grammy Awards over the weekend as a result of her memoir, “Pretty One,” was nominated for Finest Audio Guide, Narration & Storytelling Recording. She misplaced to the Dalai Lama. Which, actually… truthful. Anyway, that must be the tip of it, nevertheless it’s 2026 and Republicans want to search out one thing to speak about as an alternative of unleashing untrained, armed thugs on Minnesota to kidnap journalists and homicide civilians, so Justice Jackson’s award nomination is the brand new ethics scandal.
There’s nothing improper about attending an awards ceremony for an award that you’re really nominated for. However Senator Marsha Blackburn needs an investigation into whether or not Jackson’s attendance breached Supreme Court docket ethics as a result of so many artists and presenters bashed ICE on the occasion. Blackburn’s letter claims that Jackson’s mere presence at an occasion the place different folks exercised their First Modification rights one way or the other compromises her impartiality on immigration circumstances:
“Whereas it’s in no way exceptional or uncommon for a Supreme Court docket justice to attend a public perform, very not often—if ever—have justices of our nation’s highest Court docket been current at an occasion at which attendees have amplified such far-left rhetoric,” Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote in a Thursday letter to [Chief Justice John] Roberts.
Presumably the “far-left rhetoric” is “Abolish ICE.” And if that’s the case, the unhealthy information for Blackburn is that that is, in line with polling, the mainstream American position now.
The moral constraints on the Supreme Court docket are notoriously non-existent. Blackburn cites the toothless recommendation that the justices “act always in a fashion that promotes public confidence within the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.” The senator particularly worries that Jackson’s look in the identical room the place such radical ideas as “perhaps don’t imprison youngsters with out due course of” may be expressed.
Blackburn recounted how Sens. Dick Durbin (D-In poor health.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) penned a letter to Roberts urging him to make sure that conservative Justice Samuel Alito would recuse himself within the 2020 election and Capitol riot circumstances as a result of his spouse put up a Revolutionary Conflict-era flag at his home.
Proper. However see how that’s, like, by no means the identical factor? The right analogy could be if Justice Jackson herself wore an ICE Out pin on the occasion. And if she did so, then that may be a superb argument for recusal. However she didn’t. Which makes it very completely different than Sam Alito flying rebellion symbols exterior his home in January 2021.
Third Circuit Decide Emil Bove, one of many architects of the DOJ’s contemptuous strategy to deportations having reportedly counseling authorities legal professionals to say “fuck you” to courts blocking unlawful flights, attended a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. Versus an awards present the place Billie Eilish earned 30 seconds to precise her help for immigrants, Bove attended a political rally the place the president declared immigrants as coming from “shithole international locations,” and mused about working for a 3rd time period. As a symbolic expression of help, this isn’t in the identical ballpark.
Conservatives on the Supreme Court docket fare even worse on the moral ledger. Clarence Thomas accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in undisclosed luxury travel and gifts from a billionaire whose pursuits often align with circumstances earlier than the Court docket? Sam Alito taking a private jet trip to a luxury fishing resort courtesy of a Republican megadonor who really did have enterprise earlier than the Court docket? Alito got himself knighted by a corporation headed up by arch-conservative Europeans.
It’s not even clear Blackburn is dumb sufficient to purchase her personal performative tantrum:
“Congressional Democrats and the legacy media have spent years smearing Republican-appointed Supreme Court docket justices as corrupt, partisan, and having engaged in conduct that violates the Court docket’s Code of Conduct,” Blackburn bemoaned.
“These public smear campaigns orchestrated by congressional Democrats and amplified by the mainstream media had been baseless and a pathetic try to affect the decision-making means of the Court docket.”
And that’s the entire technique. Deflect from the documented corruption piling up round conservatives by claiming the actual bias is passively sitting within the viewers whereas the woke mob awards Spanish-language music. If the usual is merely attending an occasion the place different audio system interact in radical rhetoric, can we get some moral complaints over being inside a thousand yards of a Federalist Society convention? As a result of I don’t know if the GOP needs to tug that string.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Legislation and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be happy to email any ideas, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky if you happen to’re fascinated about regulation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
