Great article about Ketanji Brown Jackson in the Miami Herald

Check it out here.  There's great stuff about her high school debate career, including this gem of a picture from the yearbook of her and Stephen Rosenthal:

 

There's also a quote by yours truly about the importance of professional diversity on the Supreme Court:

The 51-year-old appeals court judge spent her formative years in the criminal defense system, notably as an assistant federal public defender in Washington, D.C. She also served as a staff attorney and commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which dramatically overhauled draconian incarcerations for drug offenders. Occupants of the Supreme Court’s nine seats have typically been tapped from federal appeals courts, major law firms or academia with little to no background in criminal defense, the arena of law that disproportionately impacts minorities and the poor. The last Supreme Court justice to have any criminal defense experience was Thurgood Marshall, the first Black man to sit on the high court. Miami criminal defense attorney David O. Markus, a former federal public defender who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1997, a year after Brown Jackson, believes she would bring a fresh perspective that could serve the entire court well.
“It’s not just diversity in the traditional sense that is important; professional diversity is also critical,” Markus said. “Appointing a former defender won’t even the scales, but at least someone who has experienced what it’s like to defend a case against the overwhelming might of the federal government will have a place to be heard.” Her own family history during the 1980s in Miami, a period that exposed her to both sides of the law, also strongly influenced the legal path she pursued as a lawyer and judge, Brown Jackson herself has acknowledged in prior Senate confirmation hearings. She was raised in suburban comfort in the Cutler Bay area by two educators, including a mother who served as a high school principal and a father who taught history and later became the chief lawyer for the Miami-Dade County School Board. She also had two uncles and a brother who became police officers.