A couple of weeks back, I noted the speculation that President Biden would nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the D.C. Circuit. Now, the nomination is official. Congratulations, Judge Jackson!

For this post, I decided to do a quick search of Judge Jackson’s involvement with the D.C. Circuit. Using Westlaw,* I found 38 cases, including some cases in which she argued — and won — as an assistant federal public defender. Unsurprisingly, however, I primarily found cases in which she was the district court judge.

Here is the list (in reverse chronological order), along with links:

• Committee on Judiciary v. McGahn, 973 F.3d 121 (D.C. Cir. 2020), 968 F.3d 755 (D.C. Cir. 2020), 951 F.3d 510 (D.C. Cir. 2020) [This is a complicated series of cases — Judge Jackson’s decision was initially reversed, but then the en banc Court disagreed with the panel; then the panel reversed on a different ground; the en banc Court is scheduled to hear oral argument later this month]
• Make the Road New York v. Wolf, 962 F.3d 612 (D.C. Cir. 2020) [Reversed]
• Haughton v. District of Columbia, 819 F. App’x 1 (D.C. Cir. 2020) [Affirmed]
• Hall & Associates v. EPA, 956 F.3d 621 (D.C. Cir. 2020) [Vacated]
• Government of Guam v. United States, 950 F.3d 104 (D.C. Cir. 2020) [Reversed]
• Alliance of Artists & Recording Companies, Inc. v. DENSO Int’l America, Inc., 947 F.3d 849 (D.C. Cir. 2020) [Affirmed]
• In re Air Crash Over the Southern Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014, 946 F.3d 607 (D.C. Cir. 2020) [Affirmed]
• Young v. United States, 943 F.3d 460 (D.C. Cir. 2019) [Affirmed]
• American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO v. Trump, 929 F.3d 748 (D.C. Cir. 2019) [Reversed]
• Azima v. RAK Investment Authority, 926 F.3d 870 (D.C. Cir. 2019) [Reversed]
• DCH Regional Medical Center v. Azar, 925 F.3d 503 (D.C. Cir. 2019) [Affirmed]
• Sickle v. Torres Advanced Enterprise Solution, LLC, 884 F.3d 338 (D.C. Cir. 2018) [Affirmed in Part]
• Clarian Health West, LLC v. Hargan, 878 F.3d 346 (D.C. Cir. 2017) [Reversed]
• Otsuka Pharm. Co. v. Price, 869 F.3d 987 (D.C. Cir. 2017) [Affirmed]
• Crawford v. Duke, 867 F.3d 103 (D.C. Cir. 2017) [Affirmed in Part]
• Limnia, Inc. v. Dep’t of Energy, 857 F.3d 379 (D.C. Cir. 2017) [Reversed]
• AquAlliance v. Bureau of Reclamation, 856 F.3d 101 (D.C. Cir. 2017) [Affirmed]
• Kahl v. Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., 856 F.3d 106 (D.C. Cir. 2017) [Reversed]
• Harris v. United States, 688 F. App’x 1 (D.C. Cir. 2017) [COA denied]
• Smith v. United States, 843 F.3d 509 (D.C. Cir. 2016) [Affirmed]
• Roethe Development, Inc. v. Dep’t of Defense, 836 F.3d 57 (D.C. Cir. 2016) [Affirmed]
• Mackinac Tribe v. Jewell, 829 F.3d 754 (D.C. Cir. 2016) [Affirmed]
• Johnson v. Perez, 823 F.3d 701 (D.C. Cir. 2016) [Affirmed]
• District No. 1, Pacific Coast District v. Liberty Maritime Corp., 815 F.3d 834 (D.C. Cir. 2016) [Affirmed]
• Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. Vilsack, 808 F.3d 905 (D.C. Cir. 2015) [Affirmed]
• Watervale Marine Co. v. Dep’t of Homeland Security, 807 F.3d 325 (D.C. Cir. 2015) [Affirmed]
• Z Street v. Koskinen, 791 F.3d 24 (D.C. Cir. 2015) [Affirmed]
• American Meat Institute v. Dep’t of Agriculture, 760 F.3d 18 (D.C. Cir. 2014), 746 F.3d 1065 (D.C. Cir. 2014) [Affirmed both times]
• United States v. Brown, 504 F.3d 99 (D.C. Cir. 2007) [as lawyer, lost]
• United States v. Edwards, 496 F.3d 677 (D.C. Cir. 2007) [as lawyer, lost]
• United States v. Littlejohn, 489 F.3d 1335 (D.C. Cir. 2007) [as lawyer, won]
• United States v. Bell, 2007 WL 1759781 (D.C. Cir. 2007) [motion to voluntarily dismiss appeal granted]
• United States v. Mapp, 476 F.3d 1012 (D.C. Cir. 2007) [as lawyer, lost — although the D.C. Circuit decision has a red flag]
• United States v. Ponds, 454 F.3d 313 (D.C. Cir. 2006) [as lawyer, won]
• United States v.. McCants, 434 F.3d 557 (D.C. Cir. 2006) [as lawyer, won]

I have never met Judge Jackson, but she is regarded as a smart, friendly person, with deep experience in the field of criminal law. Unsurprisingly, it also turns out that she is quite familiar with the work of the D.C. Circuit … though I think it is safe to wonder how long she will sit on the D.C. Circuit!

---

* I searched “Ketanji Brown Jackson” in the D.C. Circuit database on Westlaw. I then searched “Ketanji B. Jackson” (which is the name she used for at least four appeals). This list is under-inclusive; I also searched Westlaw’s page dedicated to Judge Jackson. It identified 77 appeals. I think that list contains all appeals from her orders whereas the search I did identified only cases with the words “Ketanji Brown Jackson” or “Ketanji B. Jackson” — which Westlaw often added to case abstracts. I apologize if I made any mistakes.

D.C. Circuit Review – Reviewed is designed to help you keep track of the nation’s “second most important court” in just five minutes a week every once in a while.