WASHINGTON — Sen. Marsha Blackburn urged Chief Justice John Roberts to launch an investigation into liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson over her attendance on the Grammy Awards on Sunday.
Jackson, a longtime theater lover, was there as a result of she had been nominated for a Grammy for narrating the audiobook model of her memoir, “Beautiful One,” however Blackburn raised impartiality considerations because of anti-ICE jokes through the politically charged award present.
Some critics have accused Jackson of clapping throughout these jabs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Whereas it’s under no circumstances exceptional or uncommon for a Supreme Court docket justice to attend a public operate, 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 Roberts.
Blackburn, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, referred to as for an investigation into whether or not Jackson’s actions adjust to the Supreme Court docket’s Code of Conduct’s stipulation that justices “act always in a fashion that promotes public confidence within the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
The Supreme Court docket rolled out its first-ever code of conduct again in 2023 after public stress over among the conservative justices’ undisclosed presents and journey.
All 9 justices signed onto the code of conduct, nevertheless it seems to have few enamel.
On condition that the excessive court docket is at the moment tackling high-profile instances revolving round President Trump, such because the birthright citizenship case, and can probably take into account extra immigration instances sooner or later, Blackburn and different critics argued that Jackson’s look raises questions on whether or not she will likely be honest.
Attendees have been seen donning “ICE Out” lapel pins, and among the Grammy winners espoused anti-ICE rhetoric similar to “Nobody is prohibited on stolen land” and “F— ICE.”
Blackburn recounted how Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ailing.) 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 instances as a result of his spouse put up a Revolutionary Struggle-era flag at his home.
Alito declined to take action. At one other level, Alito drew worldwide headlines in 2022 when he publicly mocked European leaders for trashing the Supreme Court docket’s choice to overturn precedents guaranteeing a nationwide proper to abortion first set in Roe v. Wade.
Blackburn, who’s working to be governor of Tennessee, additionally pointed to the lefty stress marketing campaign in opposition to conservative Justice Clarence Thomas over his vacationing with Dallas-based actual property guru and GOP donor Harlan Crow.
“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 have been baseless and a pathetic try to affect the decision-making means of the Court docket.”
The Tennessee Republican contended that, not like the “meritless claims” in opposition to Alito and Thomas, there are “critical questions” about Jackson’s attendance on the Grammy Awards.
Whereas Jackson sometimes sides together with her two fellow liberal justices in polarizing instances, she has crossed ideological traces on occasion. For instance, in 2024, she joined 5 conservative justices in deciding to considerably slim a key Capitol riot-related cost used in opposition to Trump.
Jackson made her Broadway debut in late 2024, collaborating in a queer reimagining of William Shakespeare’s basic “Romeo & Juliet.”
The Put up reached out to the Supreme Court docket for remark. The excessive court docket will hear its subsequent spherical of oral arguments over the last week of February.
