Who is Ketanji Brown's husband Patrick Jackson? Biden nominates first Black woman to SCOTUS
President Joe Biden nominated federal judge Ketanji Brown to the Supreme Court on February 25, 2022, making her the first Black woman to earn a nomination to the bench. "For too long our government, our courts haven't looked like America," Biden noted in his speech, while an emotional Brown thanked her husband Patrick Jackson for his unfailing support and love.
She also said, "I must begin these very brief remarks by thanking god for delivering me to this point in my professional journey. My life has been blessed beyond measure, and I do know that one can only come this far by faith." Ketanji Brown, 51, is married to surgeon Dr Patrick Graves Jackson since 1996, and the two met each other while studying at Harvard.
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Born September 14, 1970, in Washington, DC, and raised in Miami, Florida, Ketanji Brown Jackson was a high school debate champion before going to Harvard University for college and law school, where she served as an editor on the Harvard Law Review. She began her legal career with three clerkships, one of which was with Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court.
Jackson happens to be the chief of gastrointestinal surgery at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital. He is also an associate professor of surgery at Georgetown University. According to his online bio, he specializes in abdominal wall reconstructions and hernias.
Patrick and Ketanji first met when both of them were attending Harvard University. He later went to medical school at Columbia University while Ketanji Brown graduated from Harvard Law School. However, the two fell in love with each other and eventually tied the knot in 1996.
The pair overcame many societal hurdles faced by interracial couples, as Dr Jackson noted in a June 2021 tweet. "Happy Loving Day! I am especially thankful to be walking through life with a brilliant and compassionate partner who still takes my breath away, made possible by sacrifices like Richard and Mildred Loving," he wrote for his wife. Richard and Mildred Loving were an interracial couple arrested for their marriage, eventually prompting the landmark Supreme Court judgment putting an end to racial segregation in marital relations.
The esteemed surgeon is a doting husband on the home front, who has always been extremely supportive of his wife. In fact, he would often attend the courtroom after his long hours as a medical resident, because he was "so fascinated" by Ketanji Brown's work. This was a time when Ketanji was working as a law clerk for federal judges including Judge Patti B Saris of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (1996–1997) and Judge Bruce M Selya of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1997–1998).
Dr Patrick Jackson also happens to be the twin brother of William Jackson, who is incidentally married to former Speaker Paul Ryan's sister Dana Little Jackson.