58 pages • 1-hour read
Lovely One
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Part 2, Chapters 15-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary: “A Year Like No Other”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and racism.
Jackson was both excited and overwhelmed by her new position as a clerk to Justice Breyer. One of her tasks was to collaborate with other clerks to decide which cases the Supreme Court would agree to rule on and which to reject. Since they could only choose 83 from over 7,000 cases, this was a difficult task. Contributing to decisions that would affect millions of people’s rights was an immense burden, exacerbated by the fact that Jackson had to keep her work knowledge completely confidential. Jackson’s commitment to her job took up almost all her time, and her husband did more of the housework to support her, which she greatly appreciated.
Justice Breyer was a high-energy and outgoing justice who would often make abrupt appearances to his clerks, asking them to scribe some thoughts on an argument or decision. While Jackson found the job demanding, she appreciated Breyer’s kindness and optimism, and she respected his intelligence. Jackson and Breyer’s other clerks learned to respond instantly to their boss’s needs and support each other. In hindsight, Jackson better understands the pressure and responsibility of the job of Supreme Court justice, and she reflects on how Justice Breyer always spoke about the importance of the rule of law in a democracy. Having followed in his footsteps, Jackson feels the same trust in the principles of law that her mentor once did.
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary: “African Homecoming”
Before beginning her Supreme Court clerkship, Jackson was thrilled to go to Kenya for a safari vacation with Patrick and his family. Upon landing in Kenya, Jackson realized that she should keep a diary of her trip, which was a homecoming to her ancestors’ native continent. Jackson was amazed by the beauty of the Kenyan landscape and its diverse wildlife and felt grateful to see such incredible animals in person. She was happy to interact with the local Samburu people and experience some of their culture, and she was honored to be invited into their homes and treated with warm hospitality. Being a medical resident at the time, Patrick wanted to offer any help he could to the locals, and villagers formed a long line to consult him about their health issues. Patrick was happy to give back to the Samburu since they had welcomed him and his family so warmly.
Jackson felt that the trip brought her simultaneously closer to her husband’s family and to the Samburu people. Despite the cultural and ecological differences, Jackson felt a strong sense of belonging in Kenya. In her diaries from the time, she called herself a “stolen sister” who had finally returned home to Africa (238). Upon leaving Kenya, Jackson realized that she could try to manifest this sense of belonging wherever she was.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary: “The Culture of Big Law”
Nearing the end of her Supreme Court clerkship, Jackson discovered that she was pregnant with her first child. While her husband was excited by the news, Jackson felt that it had happened too soon, and she worried about how she would deal with beginning a new job well into her pregnancy. Her morning sickness also took a toll on her as she continued her long hours in Justice Breyer’s chambers. She then accepted a new position with Goodwin Procter, where she worked until she delivered her daughter, Talia Aenzi.
Jackson reflects on the intense love she experienced for her newborn, as well as the difficulties of coping with her baby’s sensitivities and allergies. Leaving Talia with a nanny at four months old, Jackson returned to her position. She remembers this time as “the stuff of nightmares” (245).
The heartache of being separated from Talia, in combination with the exhaustion of new motherhood and the demands of her full-time job, made Jackson’s time at work impossible to enjoy. She felt that she was at a competitive disadvantage, as she could not work overtime as often as her colleagues who were not parenting young children. This challenge led to an identity crisis, as she had always been an overachiever. Some colleagues viewed her with a dismissive attitude, and clients often assumed that she was a legal secretary rather than a lawyer.
Jackson notes that her challenges are common among women, mothers, and people of color in big law offices, and she cites statistics showing that these groups are underrepresented among the top earners in law. She wishes that it had been easier to have a work-life balance at this time, as she missed her daughter and regrets missing important moments in her life. Since her job at Goodwin Procter was untenable, she began an “epic pilgrimage” between different jobs in an effort to find a better balance for herself and her family (253).
She accepted a job with Feinberg, LLP, a boutique law firm that represented victims of mass-casualty events. Her new job required her to move to Washington, DC, with her daughter and their nanny while Patrick remained behind in Boston. Jackson was optimistic about this new chapter in their lives and tried to get a fresh start after the guilt and stress of the last several years.
Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary: “What Is Justice?”
Jackson was soon joined by Patrick, who had secured a job as a surgeon and professor. Patrick was supportive of Jackson’s dream of ascending to the nation’s highest court one day. Seeking more stability and a return to criminal law, Jackson accepted a government job as the assistant special counsel for the United States Sentencing Commission. In this role, Jackson was responsible for translating recommendations into clear legislative language for judges to consult in the Guidelines Manual as they sentenced criminals.
Jackson recognized the importance of sentencing rules, as they can prevent “government overreach” and protect democratic norms (261). Criminal sentencing is always informed by highly subjective notions of fairness and of the government’s authority to punish criminals. Early sentencing laws imposed a maximum sentence for certain crimes but no minimum, resulting in wildly different outcomes for similar crimes depending on the judge ruling their case. Some conservative judges and senators lobbied for minimum sentencing to avoid lenient sentences, while more liberal politicians voiced concerns about how judges’ broad sentencing discretion tainted their sentencing with bias. While the Guidelines Manual recommendations are not mandatory, judges are encouraged to consult the guidelines to ensure that their rulings are proportional to the crime. Jackson believes that the manual is useful since it reduces the role of bias and makes the law more equitable.
As proud parents to Talia, the Jacksons were in awe of their two-year-old daughter’s intellect; she seemed to have an amazing memory and had learned the alphabet already. However, Jackson was troubled to learn that her daughter was not adjusting well to her preschool and, although she was clearly bright, was not participating in lessons in the same way the other kids were. When another parent made a mean remark about Talia not fitting in, the Jacksons decided to enroll Talia in a different school. In hindsight, Jackson realizes that she and her husband naively expected Talia to be the same as them and were unaware of how she had a different personality and learning style than either of them.
Part 2, Chapter 19 Summary: “Call of Duty”
During Jackson’s second pregnancy, she bore more of the parenting duties, as her husband was often on call at the hospital and his schedule was constantly shifting. While it was difficult for her not to know when she would see him, Jackson felt that her husband was a superhero for the lifesaving work he did at the hospital. Jackson was delighted to welcome her younger daughter, Leila, into the family, and Talia loved her new sister.
Jackson had begun a new job as an assistant federal public defender, a job she relished. Jackson feels that public defenders play a crucial part in maintaining democracy, as they ensure that everyone accused of a crime is able to access legal representation. She explains how Clarence Gideon’s Supreme Court case set the precedent that everyone accused of a crime has a right to legal representation. Passionate about her cause, Jackson loved her job as a public defender.
One day, Jackson was surprised to receive a call from her uncle Thomas, who she knew had been incarcerated on a drug charge. She was astonished to learn that he had been sentenced to life in prison, and he asked for her help. Jackson reviewed his files and felt sickened to realize that, while she felt that his sentence was unduly harsh, she had no cause to ask for a retrial.
Although Thomas had not had a weapon, had not done anything violent, and had cooperated with the police, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, while the drug traffickers he worked for went free. A “three-strikes” sentencing system required him to be sentenced to life imprisonment since he had two minor drug possession charges on his record already. Jackson could not represent her uncle, but she referred him to a lawyer who took his case pro bono. After years of waiting and wondering, Jackson was relieved when her uncle was one of thousands of non-violent offenders pardoned by President Obama, marking the end of his imprisonment. At age 78, Thomas passed away shortly after being released.
Thomas’s experience renewed Jackson’s commitment to advocating for justice that is fair and proportional, unlike the three-strikes laws that imprisoned him for life.
Part 2, Chapters 15-19 Analysis
In these chapters, Jackson discusses the importance of Confronting Racism in her career as a lawyer and judge. She acknowledges that the US law enforcement and justice systems tend to behave more punitively toward Black Americans than their white counterparts, and she cites statistics to prove it. By detailing her work on the US Sentencing Commission, Jackson argues that sentencing guidelines for judges are an essential part of helping them overcome unconscious bias and sentence people more fairly. She connects this discussion with her own personal experience with her uncle Thomas, who was incarcerated with a life sentence for possession of cocaine. While she acknowledges that he was guilty of a crime, she suggests that the government’s three-strikes laws were unnecessarily punitive: “Drug kingpins with violent histories had been released with less time. Yet under the new three-strikes law, Thomas Brown Jr., a nonviolent bit player in a small-time drug distribution scheme, had been sentenced to life without parole” (286). This passage provides a powerful example of the uneven, discriminatory outcomes that can arise from seemingly unbiased laws. In theory, the law applies equally to everyone, but in practice, the over-policing of predominantly Black neighborhoods makes it much more likely for someone like Thomas to end up with the “three strikes” that lead to a mandatory life sentence. By explaining her uncle’s case, the author supports her argument that punishments must be “more proportional to the facts of their crimes” (290).
Jackson’s experiences as a young lawyer at the private firm Goodwin Procter emphasize The Importance of Representation. She considers how, due to the culture of what she calls “big law,” some of her colleagues were not used to seeing Black women as lawyers. As both a gender and racial minority in the office, Jackson sometimes felt overlooked and dismissed by her colleagues. She discusses the “painful awareness” that not everyone in her office respected her experience and perspectives (249). She recalls, “There were times when I wanted to yank my two Harvard diplomas off my office wall and carry them with me into meetings, as evidence that I had in fact graduated, with honors, from a venerated institution” (249). In a career studded with firsts, Jackson here reflects on the burdens that sometimes come with being among the first Black women in spaces that have been dominated by white men for generations.
Despite her record of academic and professional excellence, Jackson was not always afforded the respect that others enjoyed. These experiences spurred her on to work even harder, and Jackson wonders whether her commitment to work is an inherent part of her nature or arises from a feeling that she must prove herself to others:
It’s impossible to tease apart how much this commitment to working hard was trained into me, how much was my own nature, and how much stemmed from my desire as a Black woman to be excellent in a professional world that tended to overlook, underestimate, or dismiss people like me (243).
By sharing the frustration of breaking gender and racial barriers in “big law,” the author portrays herself as a resilient trailblazer, encouraging the reader to reflect on representation and respect in the workplace.
As she recalls the hard work required to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Jackson reflects on Ambition and Resilience as Keys to Achievement. By emphasizing the intense demands of her job as a Supreme Court clerk, Jackson focuses the reader on the daily grind of her role and reveals more about the work done behind the scenes, out of public view: “[M]y tenure in Justice Breyer’s chambers plumbed a depth of physical and mental fortitude that I didn’t know I possessed […] I worked twelve to fifteen hours a day, seven days a week, during my year at the Court” (220). Jackson’s reflections show how this work paid off in two major ways: giving her valuable experience with the inner workings of the Supreme Court and allowing her to contribute to the cause of upholding the nation’s constitution. By reflecting on the challenges and triumphs of her year as a Supreme Court clerk, Jackson acknowledges the challenges of the job while also celebrating her own resilience and the best ideals of the justice system.
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