President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, received high praise from a prominent conservative former judge who was once considered for appointment to the high court by President George W. Bush.
Retired Judge J. Michael Luttig, a George H.W. Bush appointee to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, gave high praise to the Biden administration’s selection of Jackson, White House spokesman Andrew Bates pointed out in a tweet.
“Judge Jackson has a demonstrated record of excellence, and I believe, based upon her work as a trial judge when I served on the Court of Appeals, that she will adjudicate based on the facts and the law and not as a partisan,” Luttig wrote in a statement first obtained by CNN.
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The retired judge previously commended Biden’s pledge to nominate the first black woman as a Supreme Court justice. In his recent statement, he also called for bipartisan support for Biden’s nominee to succeed retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
“Republicans and Democrats alike should give their studied advice — and then their consent — to the President’s nomination of Judge Jackson,” Luttig said, adding, “Republicans should vote to confirm Judge Jackson out of political calculation, even if they cannot bring themselves to confirm her out of political magnanimity …”
Since her nomination on Friday, the White House has highlighted key conservative voices expressing support for Jackson’s confirmation in the Senate, noting that figures such as former House Speaker Paul Ryan have touted her credentials and also propping up the endorsement of Jackson by retired federal Judge Thomas Beall Griffith.
Luttig is credited with playing a critical role in supplying former Vice President Mike Pence with legal insight to defy former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, as Pence cited Luttig’s tweets in a letter explaining his reasoning for certifying the election for Biden.
Earlier this month, the former judge penned an op-ed in the New York Times, in which he presented a “conservative case” for reforming the Electoral Count Act of 1887, a point he claimed is necessary to prevent Trump from unjustly attempting to “seize the presidency in 2024.”
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Luttig’s career spans from his early work in former President Ronald Reagan’s administration, as well as his service as a law clerk for Antonin Scalia when he was on a federal appeals court.
The elder Bush appointed Luttig to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1991, and he retired from his post in 2006.
