Ketanji Brown Jackson says Supreme Court risks being seen as political after voting rights decision [View all]

Source: AP

Updated 10:46 PM EDT, May 18, 2026


WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Monday that the Supreme Court risks being seen as political in the wake of a major voting rights decision.

She spoke after writing a solo dissent from the court’s decision allowing Louisiana to move quickly to use new maps after the court’s conservative majority struck down a majority-Black district and weakened the Voting Rights Act.

“Public confidence is really all the judiciary has,” she said at a talk before the American Law Institute in Washington, D.C. “Everyone believes the court system is outside the political sphere. I think that means it’s incumbent on us to do things, to act in ways, that shore up public confidence,” she said.

Polling has shown public trust in the Supreme Court at historic lows in recent years, and Chief Justice John Roberts has separately bemoaned a perception that the justices are “political actors,” calling it a misunderstanding.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-voting-rights-justice-jackson-d9971fd19f7a63c841e7890b89e104f6