Ep. 588 - The most important part of Kentanji Brown Jackson's legal background

Yes, it's exciting that a Black woman could be on the Supreme Court, but for many of us in the justice community, NOTHING is more exciting to us than the fact that she is a former public defender.

I'm all for ethnic and gender diversity, but America's courts also need an essential type of legal diversity that is woefully missing. The overwhelming majority of judges in America are former prosecutors and see the whole system of justice from the lens of mass incarceration.

That's why our organization, Grassroots Law, has fought hard for the past 18 months for Joe Biden to appoint as many former public defenders to judgeships as possible. Having that experience completely changes the way a person sees the criminal and legal system.

While I have 101 strong critiques of Joe Biden, one victory that I feel very good about is that he is appointing, for the first time in American history really, a plethora of former public defenders to essential positions. It's a big deal.