Supreme Court justice Alito sharply rebukes Ketanji Brown Jackson (finally)

By Easton Martin | May 5, 2026

Justice Samuel Alito issued a sharp rebuke of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday, calling her lone dissent in a Louisiana redistricting case baseless and insulting. The critique came after the Supreme Court issued an order to fast-track the implementation of a recent redistricting decision ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

​Alito wrote a concurring opinion joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. In his writing, he directly addressed Jackson’s claims that the majority had engaged in an unprincipled use of power. Alito described that accusation as a groundless and utterly irresponsible charge.

​The disagreement centered on a procedural rule that normally provides a 32-day waiting period before a Supreme Court judgment is formally sent to lower courts. The majority decided to bypass this window to allow Louisiana officials to move forward with a new congressional map. Alito argued that the delay served no practical purpose and that Jackson’s reasons for wanting to wait were trivial at best.

​Jackson was the only justice to dissent from the order. Her two liberal colleagues did not join her opinion. In her dissent, Jackson warned that the intervention by the high court risked creating the appearance of partiality by injecting the court into an active election cycle. She also accused the majority of unshackling itself from traditional legal constraints.

​Alito countered by stating that it was actually the rhetoric in the dissent that lacked restraint. He noted that the procedural rule in question is flexible and primarily exists to allow time for rehearing petitions, which no party had requested in this instance.