You genuinely cannot make this up. You can only document it, shake your head, and move on.
Ketanji Brown Jackson — the Joe Biden DEI Supreme Court justice who has been rebuked by Amy Coney Barrett for reasoning “at odds with more than two centuries of precedent,” called out by Clarence Thomas for her “race-infused world view,” and whose dissents Samuel Alito has described as “baseless and insulting” with rhetoric that “lacks restraint” — sat down with Michelle Obama and her brother on their podcast to explain how important it is for judges to avoid even the appearance of political bias.
“You really have to be focused on that,” Jackson told the former First Lady. “There are lots of limits on what judges can do, and I try to be very, very mindful and scrupulous with respect to that because, as you say, our obligation is to be unbiased in our approach. And, so, you have to then navigate all the sources that could make for an appearance of partiality, which you want to avoid.”
The episode was recorded in May and released Wednesday. Its title is “Move Through the Hard Times With Ketanji Brown Jackson” — framing a sitting Supreme Court justice with a lifetime appointment, a security detail, and a seat on the most powerful court in the world as someone struggling against adversity. The episode is 90 minutes long.
What it is not is self-aware.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says SCOTUS must avoid even the appearance of political bias… while appearing on Michelle Obama’s podcast. pic.twitter.com/gs2HVo5sqr
— Chairwoman Lisa McClain (@RepLisaMcClain) July 30, 2026
Michelle Obama is not a neutral figure. She is a former first lady who spent eight years as a prominent Democratic political figure, who gave a nationally televised address at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, and who has been openly discussed as a potential Democratic presidential candidate. Her podcast is not a neutral forum. It is a political platform that Jackson chose to appear on for 90 minutes while simultaneously delivering a lecture about the Supreme Court’s obligation to avoid the appearance of partiality.
The appearance of partiality — to use Justice Jackson’s own phrase — is precisely what she created by sitting down there. Clarence Thomas doesn’t do Democratic podcast circuits. Samuel Alito isn’t appearing on Obama family media properties delivering messages about judicial temperament. The conservative justices who are relentlessly attacked in the press for their supposed bias are not doing 90-minute interviews with Republican former presidents’ spouses.
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) captured the essential absurdity in a single post: “Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says SCOTUS must avoid even the appearance of political bias… while appearing on Michelle Obama’s podcast.”
The episode title’s suggestion that Jackson is moving through hard times is a nice touch. She was appointed by a Democratic president who explicitly announced he was searching for a Black woman. She is one of nine justices on the highest court in the land. She has a lifetime appointment to a position of immense power and influence.
But she sat on Michelle Obama’s podcast and talked about impartiality. So there’s that.
