Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson once argued in an article that the judicial system in America is “unfair” to sexual predators.
Jackson, whom President Joe Biden has nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court, authored an unsigned “Note” for the Harvard Law Review in 1996 calling for judges to change their analytical framework for evaluating the constitutionality of certain state sex offender statutes. She disclosed authorship of the article to the Senate Judiciary Committee after she was nominated to serve as U.S. district judge for the District of Columbia by President Barack Obama in 2012.
In the article, Jackson wrote, “In the current climate of fear, hatred, and revenge associated with the release of convicted sex criminals, courts must be especially attentive to legislative enactments that ‘use[ ] public health and safety rhetoric to justify procedures that are, in essence, punishment and detention.'”
Her article took issue with how some state legislatures at the time enacted laws to regulate the release of sex offenders. Examples she cited include requirements for sex offenders to register with local law enforcement officials, notify community members of their presence, undergo DNA testing, and submit to civil confinement for an indefinite term. Read more…