What is Ketanji Brown Jackson's Net Worth and Salary?
Ketanji Brown Jackson is an American attorney and jurist who has a net worth of $3.5 million. That is a combined net worth with her husband, Dr. Patrick G. Jackson. Separate from her husband, according to her financial disclosures, Ketanji's personal assets are worth around $400 thousand.
Ketanji Brown Jackson became famous in 2022 when she was nominated by President Joe Biden to the Supreme Court. At the time of her nomination, Ketanji Brown Jackson had been serving as a federal judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2021. Before this, she served as a district judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia, and was vice chair of the US Sentencing Commission.
Financial Disclosure and Salary
According to Ketanji's most-recently released federal financial disclosure form, as a Federal judge her base salary in a typical year was around $230 thousand. Outside of her Federal salary, she earns $3,000 per year teaching classes at George Washington University.
The disclosure also showed that she had around $130,000 invested in an S&P 500 tracking fund invested in a Charles Schwab account and $30,000 in a Vanguard fund. She does not own any individual stocks.
As a surgeon for Medstar at Georgetown University's hospital, Dr. Patrick G. Jackson typically earns around $400,000 per year in salary, though that number can be much higher depending on a variety of factors.
Real Estate
In 2013, Ketanji and Patrick paid $1.875 million for a home in Washington D.C. They listed this home for sale in April 2024 for $2.5 million and sold it a few months later for $2.6 million.
Early Life and Education
Ketanji Brown Jackson was born on September 14, 1970 in Washington, DC to Ellery and Johnny, both public school educators who graduated from historically black colleges. She has a younger brother named Ketajh who was an undercover narcotics officer before serving as an infantry officer in the Maryland Army National Guard. Early in her childhood, Jackson moved with her family to Miami, Florida, where her father attended the University of Miami School of Law. In the area, she went to Miami Palmetto Senior High School. After graduating in 1988, Jackson enrolled at Harvard University, where she studied government and did improvisational comedy. She graduated magna cum laude in 1992, and went on to attend Harvard Law School, from which she obtained her JD in 1996.
Career Beginnings
Following her graduation from law school, Jackson became a law clerk to Judge Patti B. Saris of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and then to Judge Bruce M. Selya of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. After this, she spent a year in private practice at the law firm Miller Cassidy Larroca & Lewin. From 1999 to 2000, Jackson clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. She subsequently returned to private practice, working first at the Boston-based law firm Goodwin Procter and then at Feinberg & Rozen. From 2003 to 2005, Jackson served as an assistant special counsel to the US Sentencing Commission. She followed this with a two-year stint as an assistant federal public defender, and then served three years as an appellate specialist at the law firm Morrison & Foerster.
US Sentencing Commission
Jackson was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009 to become the new vice chair of the US Sentencing Commission, succeeding Michael E. Horowitz. During Jackson's tenure, which lasted until 2014, the Commission amended its guidelines to reduce the severity of criteria for certain drug crime offenses.
US District Court
In 2012, Obama nominated Jackson to replace outgoing Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. on the US District Court for the District of Columbia. During her tenure from 2013 to 2021, she wrote numerous decisions opposing the positions of Trump's administration. Among them, she ruled that provisions in some of his executive orders conflicted with federal employee collective bargaining and other rights. In other rulings during her tenure, Jackson ruled that such agencies as the Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Homeland Security, and the DC Department of Corrections had violated certain legislations and rights.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
US Court of Appeals
Jackson was nominated by President Joe Biden in April of 2021 to fill the seat left by Judge Merrick Garland on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. After receiving her judicial commission in June, Jackson made her first decision as a court of appeals judge to invalidate a 2020 Federal Labor Relations Authority rule that restricted the bargaining ability of labor unions in the federal sector.
US Supreme Court Nomination
Jackson was first considered as a nominee for the US Supreme Court in 2016, when officials from the Obama administration vetted her as a potential replacement for the recently deceased Antonin Scalia. She was not ultimately chosen. Later, in February of 2022, President Biden announced Jackson as his nominee for the Supreme Court; her nomination was soon sent to the Senate. In late March, her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee commenced.
Other Affiliations
Among her many affiliations beyond the federal government, Jackson is a member of Harvard University's Board of Overseers, and belongs to the Council of the American Law Institute. Additionally, she serves on the board of Georgetown Day School. Previously, Jackson served on the advisory board of Montrose Christian School for a year.
In her other work, Jackson has served as a judge in numerous mock trials, including ones held by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Historical Society of the District of Columbia's Mock Court Program, and the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University. Jackson also served as a panelist at a National Constitution Center town hall on Alexander Hamilton's legacy in 2018.
Personal Life
In 1996, Jackson wed surgeon Patrick Graves Jackson, whom she met in college. Notably, he is a descendant of businessman and politician Jonathan Jackson, who served as a Massachusetts delegate on the Continental Congress in 1782. Jackson and her husband have two daughters named Leila and Talia.
Through her husband, Ketanji is actually related to Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan's wife is named Janna. Janna's sister Dana is married to Patrick's brother William Jackson.
