We are just six months into the inaugural and historic U.S. Supreme Court term of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, but it’s not too early to take a first look at her work. In February, she authored her debut merits opinion for the court, and she has written four opinions related to orders the court issued. All are revealing.

Before turning to them, a few observations. As of the end of March, the court had issued just eight merits opinions, including the one Jackson authored. She joined the majority in all eight— the only justice to have done so—and had not authored any concurring opinions. The justice she has been most aligned with so far is Justice Sonia Sotomayor, having taken the same position as her in seven of the eight merits decisions, having joined her one concurrence, and having had Sotomayor join three of her four order-related opinions (the only justice to have joined any of them). Next are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh, with whom Jackson aligned in seven of the eight merits opinions. At the other end of the (albeit narrow) spectrum, she has taken the same position as Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas in five of eight merits opinions and as Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch in six of eight.

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