So let’s start by trying to get the facts straight:
On Saturday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson appeared in a performance of the Broadway musical comedy & Juliet. According to these accounts, Jackson’s role in the musical and two scenes were “written specifically for her.” The producers of & Juliet promoted Jackson’s appearance, including a post-performance conversation with the audience. Jackson said that the performance fulfilled her lifetime dream to be the first Supreme Court justice to perform on Broadway.
On the Volokh Conspiracy, Josh Blackman ponders a couple of questions. First, what is the value of the gift that the producers of & Juliet conferred on her? Priceless, it would seem. Second, does Jackson’s participation in & Juliet (which evidently features “non-binary” characters) call into question her participation in the Skrmetti case, argued just two weeks ago? I’d answer no to this one.
I’ll add a third: Is it unseemly for a justice to make such a spectacle of herself and to advance the commercial interests of a third party in doing so? Sure seems unseemly to me, but perhaps I’m responding too strongly to my cringing when I watch her acting.
And a fourth: Is Jackson better at acting than she is at being a Supreme Court justice? Quite possibly!