Newly installed Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson swore her oath on two Bibles. One was the Harlan Bible of Justice John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911) of Kentucky.
Harlan was born five miles west of Danville, Kentucky, and grew up on his family's slave-worked estate near Frankfort. He graduated from Centre College and the Transylvania Law School.
As was common in families with enslaved people, Harlan had a sibling who was mixed-race, an older brother, whom his father raised in the household as a full family member, except legally he was enslaved, thus without rights as a person. Harlan's relationship with his older half-brother may have influenced him to argue on behalf of equal rights under the law in "Plessy v. Ferguson" (1896), the dissent for which he is most known.
Harlan became known as "The Great Dissenter," due to his many dissents in cases that restricted civil liberties.
Justice Jackson is set to become another great dissenter.
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