Tuesday’s CBS Mornings was embarrassingly weak in the proverbial knees with four teases followed by over 10 minutes slobbering over far-left Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, never giving her a single ideological label while partnering with her to earn a cut of book sales for the young-adult verison of her memoir purchased through an Amazon QR code.
Co-host and Democrat donor Gayle King was particularly enthused, gushing in a second tease that she’ll “share a new edition of her memoir and talk about the challenges facing the court these days — lots of challenges.”
The last one was particularly nauseating as the control room queued up Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely to play in the background with King swooning: “Isn’t she lovely? Oh, that’s the perfect song, guys. Thank you. It is not everyday you have a Supreme Court justice in the house that has a book, Lovely One. It’s been four years on the job.”
After asking her “how are you feeling” four years into the job,” King trumpeted Jackson’s husband wearing socks with her face on it.
The interview itself began with more adulation as she was a celebrated guest at the Grammy Awards and received a shoutout from host Trevor Noah since she was a nominee in the audiobook category.
Following a plug for the book and QR code, King asked her what it was like to be there and, speaking as someone who was also hobnobbing it up on the red carpet, remarked “I saw people lining up to talk to you the way they were to other — to some of the other artists” and “you were a big hit in the room.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson received a Grammy nomination for the audio book version of her memoir, “Lovely One” — and now, the Supreme Court justice is out with an edition of the book for young adults.
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) February 10, 2026
The justice shares what she hopes young readers take away from her book,… pic.twitter.com/IpRxanycss
Jackson didn’t shake off the compliments, but welcomed it. King continued to rhetorically kiss the ground the justice was walking on, citing a speech she allegedly gave at age 12. King even asked her afterward if she’s “still striving to perfect your dreams” (click “expand”):
JACKSON: Oh, my goodness. It was such an honor to be nominated for the book that I wrote, and I think the academy saw in the book what I had hoped, which was that it was an inspiration for a lot of people and hopefully for children now, yes.
KING: And that’s why you decided, you did, to put out the young adult version because in the book you say you are here because at the age of 12 you dared to imagine yourself as a federal judge.
JACKSON: Yes.
KING: And that you tell young people, I love this, guys, dream enormously and courageously. Isn’t that good?
NATE BURLESON: It’s beautiful.
JACKSON: Yes.
KING: And even as you sit here at this stage in life, you are still striving to perfect your dreams.
JACKSON: Yes.
JACKSON: After that I went, huh? You are still striving to perfect your dreams. What do you mean?
JACKSON: I think everybody is learning and growing. I’m relatively new on the Court even though I’ve been there four years now.
KING: Four years.
JACKSON: But I’m still the junior justice, and there are more things to learn and do. We’re very busy, and I’m trying to be the best justice that I can be.
Co-host Nate Burleson took the next section and wondered how Jackson survives on the Court with so many with different views. Burleson only got one question in before King took back control though Jackson reiterated what other justices and court observers have made clear for years, which is the justices do, in fact, get along (click “expand”):
BURLESON: And before you jump in, Vlad, I want to ask about that. Gayle asked in the green room how you are feeling being four years on the job, on the Supreme Court. You said feeling good.
JACKSON: Yes.
BURLESON: I’m curious about the feeling-out process of the other justices. How do you navigate those relationships amid such differences of opinion?
JACKSON: Well, you know, the Court is very good at compartmentalizing, meaning that we focus on our work. We work very hard. We come up with our own individual opinions as to how we think about the law.
BURLESON: Of course.
JACKSON: We write our opinions but we are very collegial as a body and as a group and we get along well as justices together. And I think it’s sort of a model for learning how to disagree without being disagreeable.
KING: And you’re able to do that because right now from the outside looking in people are attacking the Supreme Court, they’re attacking the media. They’re saying that, you know, we are all so politically divided that there is no way to heal. And you say that you all basically do get along?
JACKSON: We do get along.
KING:You do?
JACKSON: We do. I think, you know, our work is focused on differences in issues. We’re sort of always thinking about the law in different ways, and so, we have learned how to adapt to being in an environment with people who have very strongly held but different views.
KING: Justice, you never say to somebody, you’re wrong. You got it wrong, buddy.
JACKSON: You say it in your opinions, and that’s a great opportunity.
Following featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers’s unsuccessful attempt to pry from Jackson a preview of how the Court will rule on President Trump’s tariffs, King also had no luck with this question fretting about another part of the Trump agenda: “Well, President Trump has, you know, recently raised a lot of concerns and eyebrows when he is making calls to nationalize the elections. What do you think about that? What does the Constitution say? Did it raise your eyebrows or give you concern?”
Having little luck eliciting liberal hot takes on issues of the day, they pivoted back to her memoir.
“This edition also includes a speech that you gave for a speech and debate tournament back in 1987 called ‘It’s about time.’ That she won, by the way. No surprise there. I would like to ask you, what do you believe it is about time for now for us as a country,” Burleson wondered in another teeball question.
Jackson replied she was feeling “very nostalgic about time passing, moving, transitioning into a different era of our lives, but the point, I think, was to really to get people to focus on the moment and try to not be so overwhelmed by the circumstance.”
Burleson agreed, adding “this moment seems so divided as a country.” Jackson countered Americans have been divided before and we overcome it by “focus[ing] on [our] own values and the things that matter” plus “invest[ing] in [our] communities.”
King returned to Jackson having to deal with so many “very conservative” people (click “expand”):
KING: I’m curious about how you personally handle things because I’m fascinated about how the court works and how the perception, you know, is that it is very conservative. How do you handle things when you go home and the decision didn’t go the way you would like? How do you come to grips with that? How do you navigate that for yourself?
JACKSON: Well, it is part of the job.
KING: Job, yes.
JACKSON: You know, there are nine of us on our Court, and each of us gets to vote and there will be many cases in which we are unanimous and we all agree on the way the law requires the case to come out and then there are many cases in which we don’t. I think one of the brilliant thinks about our system is that we have the opportunity, if you are in dissent, to write a dissent that explains what your views are, so it is not that you are just sort of shut out and not able to express.
BURLESON: Right.
KING: Your opinion is still heard.
JACKSON: Your opinion, exactly. I think it is one of the great things about this country, you know, freedom of expression and the ability that we have and the value of tolerating minority views, so our structure in the court really embodies that and it helps to have the opportunity to write what you actually feel, and then you put it behind you and you move on.
It closed with portions new to this version of her memoir focusing on the dangers of social media then King reading from an essay Jackson wrote in high school about “learning to appreciate the time we’re given” because “we will some day realize what it means to have the time of our lives.”
“Isn’t that good,” King exclaimed.
Duthiers replied: “So beautiful, so amazing. This book, everybody should go out and get this book. First of all, the adult version but also for young people because it is really wonderful.”
Oh, and they formally closed with Jackson’s husband’s socks.
Bleh.
To see the relevant CBS transcript from February 12, click here.
