Ketanji Brown Jackson, my friend

When my husband and I had been dating for a few months, I decided it was time to get a consult. In other words, I needed him to start meeting my friends. One friend, in particular, had the best judgment of anyone I knew. Her name? Ketanji Brown Jackson.

With all the news coming out of the Supreme Court in recent weeks, it was easy to miss one big development: the swearing in of its newest member, the first Black woman ever to serve on the nation’s highest court.

The moment held personal significance for me.

Justice Jackson and I met in law school, but we didn’t become good friends until several years later, when we ran into each other at a professional event. We had lots in common: We were both moms to two little girls; my younger daughter and her older one had been born the same week. We both drove minivans, enjoyed baseball games, and got in lots of beach time every summer.

“Justice Jackson became more than a baseball and beach buddy. She became a confidante.”

But Justice Jackson became more than a baseball and beach buddy. She became a confidante. She was the person I called when I was trying to decide whether to accept a new job, or when one of my kids was having a tough issue, or when my beloved dachshund died.

And yes, when I met the man I would later marry, Justice Jackson gave him two thumbs up. She had great judgment.

On the day KBJ was confirmed, she remarked that her family had gone “from segregation to the Supreme Court in one generation.” That perspective — plus her Harvard training — gives her a nuanced, complex way of looking at the world and the law that governs it.

That’s evidenced in several ways. She has worked as a public defender, in part because she wanted to understand the criminal justice system — and the people affected by it — in a more complete way. She has worked at big law firms, in part to help support her family. She has served on the boards of her children’s school and her own alma mater, both to give back to those institutions and to help make them better.

» READ MORE: Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in, becomes first Black woman on Supreme Court

She has carried the lessons she’s learned in each of these situations into her work as a judge. She understands that humanity — recognizing personal struggles — matters. Treating others with respect and creating conditions designed to help them succeed matters. Faith matters.

But judges cannot be guided by feelings and faith alone. We all — even judges — have a natural instinct to decide issues based on our gut instincts and personal beliefs; to guard against that, she uses good judgment. She developed a system. First, she clears her mind and sets aside any preconceived views. Then she looks at the law and the facts. And then she respects constraints on her role, considering factors like history and textual meaning and intent.

That methodology has led her to decide some cases in a way that many would describe as liberal, and others in a way that some would describe as conservative. In other words, she’s not predictable. She’s not definable. She’s not a clone imitation of any other justice in history, and that’s not just because she’s the first Black woman on the court. The scrunchie she often wears around her wrist means that she is practical. Her love for her rescue pit bull means that she is free from bias. Her desire for a perfectly organized office and home shows her ability to categorize, even as she defies categorization.

Over the next couple of decades, Americans will get to know her in a way that they haven’t before; they’ll hear her witty jokes, take in her great sense of style, watch her ability to listen and absorb. They’ll see her interact with young children, who already look up to her as a role model and proudly wear sweatshirts bearing her monogram.

And even if she won’t be able to tell you what she really thinks of the people you’re dating, Ketanji Brown Jackson — my friend, the Supreme Court’s newest justice — will be called upon to help decide some of the issues that most divide this country. America is about to find out what I’ve always known: Justice Jackson is a woman of great judgment.

Lisa A. Tucker is an associate professor of law at the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law.