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Ketanji Brown Jackson on Families & Children

 

 


Decide child pornography based on intent, not just actions

Judge Jackson [ruled in] United States v. Hillie, concerning federal prohibitions on the production and possession of child pornography. The defendant moved to dismiss the charges on several federal child-pornography counts, [based on] the phrase "lascivious exhibition."

To interpret that phrase, Judge Jackson relied on a set of guiding factors referred to as the "Dost factors," which include consideration of "whether the visual depiction is intended or designed to elicit a sexual response in the viewer," among other things. Jackson concluded that a reasonable jury could find the videos at issue to constitute "lascivious exhibition," emphasizing the need to account for the defendant's intent to gain sexual gratification from what was filmed, rather than the victim's actions or state of mind. The defendant was subsequently convicted of seven federal child-pornography counts, but a divided panel of the D.C. Circuit vacated those convictions on appeal based on insufficient evidence.

Source: Cong. Research Service on 2022 SCOTUS Confirmation Hearings , Mar 14, 2022

2018: Keep Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program

As a law associate, Jackson co-authored a 2001 amicus brief in support of a Massachusetts law creating a "buffer zone" around people as they approach abortion clinics. As a district court judge, Jackson ruled in 2018 against the Trump administration's early termination of some federal grants under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. The ruling wasn't focused on the substance of the grants, but rather on administrative law, like how the federal health department went about making the changes.
Source: Washington Post on 2022 SCOTUS Confirmation Hearings , Feb 28, 2022

Don't require religious employers to cover contraception

Judge Jackson has not heard any cases that directly address abortion rights. As a district court judge, she heard cases involving access to contraception.

In 2014, she applied the Supreme Court's recent decision in Hobby Lobby v. Burwell to a similar challenge to the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive coverage requirement, Barron Industries v. Burwell. In the case, Judge Jackson granted the parties' joint motion for a permanent injunction and issued a short opinion barring the federal government from requiring the employer to provide its employees with health care coverage for contraceptives to which it had a religious objection.

In 2018, Judge Jackson ruled on two cases involving the Trump administration's abrupt cancellation of grants funding the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. In Policy and Research LLC v. US Department of Health and Human Services, Judge Jackson held the Department of Health and Human Services unlawfully terminated plaintiffs' grant funding without explanation.

Source: ReproductiveRights.org on 2022 SCOTUS Confirmation Hearings , Feb 25, 2022

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Other Justices on Families & Children: Ketanji Brown Jackson on other issues:
Samuel Alito(since 2006)
Amy Coney Barrett(since 2020)
Stephen Breyer(since 1994)
Neil Gorsuch(since 2017)
Ketanji Brown Jackson(nominated 2022)
Elena Kagan(since 2010)
Brett Kavanaugh(since 2018)
John Roberts(since 2005)
Sonia Sotomayor(since 2009)
Clarence Thomas(since 1991)

Former Justices:
Merrick Garland(nominated 2016)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg(1993-2020)
Anthony Kennedy(1988-2018)
Antonin Scalia(1986-2016)
John Paul Stevens(1975-2010)
David Souter(1990-2009)
Sandra Day O'Connor(1981-2006)
William Rehnquist(1975-2005)

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Page last updated: Mar 21, 2022