Supreme Court justice compares child sex change ban to Jim Crow interracial marriage law

 WASHINGTON (TNND) — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Wednesday appeared to compare a law banning child sex change procedures to a former law restricting interracial marriage.

The comment came as the high court weighs the legality of a Tennessee law that bans gender procedures for children and whether it violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Jackson invoked the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia case, in which the court unanimously ruled Virginia's laws banning interracial marriage violated the 14th Amendment. Though the state argued its law treated all races similarly, the court rejected its argument.

Jackson cited language in the Virginia laws which prohibited an individual from acting in a way that was inconsistent with their nature and compared it to language in the Tennessee law.

“When you look at the structure of that [Tennessee] law, it looks in terms of—that you can’t do something that is inconsistent with your own characteristics, it’s sort of the same thing,” Jackson said.

She continued by claiming Virginia would have been successful in defending its case if such an argument was permissible by the court.

“It’s interesting to me that we now have this different argument and I wonder if whether Virginia could have gotten away with what they did here by just making a classification argument in the way that Tennessee did in this case.”

A recording of the claim went viral on X Wednesday, earning strong reactions from conservatives.

“This is just embarrassing for the Court,” former attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz said.

“DEI is racist, immoral, anti-meritocratic, and destructive,” author John LeFevre said. “And it is unequivocally true that, by definition, Ketanji Brown Jackson is a DEI hire.”

Women’s sports activist Riley Gaines added “this is the same Supreme Court Justice who couldn't tell you what a woman is because she ‘isn't a biologist' if that tells you anything."

Jackson was appointed by President Joe Biden. She is the first Black female Supreme Court justice. The president appeared to stumble when touting Jackson's appointment in July, accidentally bestowing Jackson’s title upon himself.

“By the way I’m proud to be, as I said the first vice president, the first Black woman served with a Black president,” Biden said. “Proud of the first Black woman, the Supreme Court. There’s just so much that we can do because together we, there’s nothing. Look, this is the United States, America.”

Follow Jackson Walker on X at @_jlwalker_ for the latest trending national news. Have a news tip? Send it to jacwalker@sbgtv.com.

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