Justice Jackson Can Shift High Court’s Crime Docket Post Breyer

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson will face an early test of whether she can form a new majority in some criminal cases along with Republican-appointed colleagues on issues that cross ideological lines.

Jackson is expected to side with criminal defendants in cases involving sentencing and search and seizure more often than her predecessor, Stephen Breyer, who cast tie-breaking votes for the government. But to make a majority on the court dominated by six Republican appointees, criminal defendants may need to attract not only Jackson and the other two Democratic appointees but two Republican appointees as well.

“Justice Jackson is ...