PINECREST, Fla. – On the day of her swearing-in to the U.S. Supreme Court, friends of newly-minted Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recounted how her passion for justice and the law began right here in South Florida.
Fort Lauderdale attorney Yolanda Cash Jackson is a family friend of the 51-year-old justice, the first Black woman to ever serve on the nation’s highest court.
She recalled Jackson’s days as a student at Miami Palmetto Senior High School in Pinecrest.
“She taught all of us how important it was to have our own mind,” Cash Jackson said.
Cash Jackson said it was “comforting to know that we will have a voice on the court and there are four women.”
Former classmate and current Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said Jackson “shows that anyone, if you are hard working enough and if you pursue your dreams, you can achieve them.”
“We all knew back in high school that she would achieve great things in her life,” he said.
Aronberg said he recognized his humble friend as she was sworn in on Thursday. He said she couldn’t be more deserving of the honor.
“She never changed,” Aronberg said.
Jackson will be able to begin work immediately, but the court will have just finished the bulk of its work until the fall, apart from emergency appeals that occasionally arise. That will give her time to settle in and familiarize herself with the roughly two dozen cases the court already has agreed to hear starting in October as well as hundreds of appeals that will pile up over the summer.