The term "judicial activist" has been used and abused by politicians of both parties for years. On Wednesday, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was labeled "exhibit A for judicial activism" because of an immigration opinion she wrote against the Trump administration.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina angrily applied the phrase to her 2019 decision in Make the Road New York v. McAleenan, a challenge to the Trump administration's policy expanding the category of immigrants eligible for expedited removal.