Justice Jackson wore cowrie shell collar to inauguration; was it 'a sartorial expression of her dissent'?
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson attends inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C. Jackson wore a large, distinctive collar made of rows of cowrie shells. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Was there a deeper meaning behind U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s neckwear choice at the inauguration for President Donald Trump?
Atop her judicial robe, Jackson wore a large, distinctive collar made of rows of cowrie shells—which come from sea snails and have long been part of African culture, according to HuffPost and Ebony.
As a fashion statement, there was some disagreement. Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, initially called the cowrie shells a “fashion faux pas,” while fashion historian Shelby Ivey Christie said the piece had undeniable visual impact.
The shell collar “brilliantly reinterprets the traditional judicial jabot through an African American cultural lens,” Christie told HuffPost. The shell pattern suggests “ceremony and significance” along with “importance and intentionality,” she said.
But there may have been a deeper meaning, according to HuffPost, Vogue, Ebony, the Root, Parade, Above the Law and a Volokh Conspiracy post by Blackman.
The shells once served as currency in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, and they convey prosperity, Christie said. They are sometimes thought to have protective properties, including protection from enslavement, and to be conduits of ancestral wisdom. They are also associated with womanhood and fertility.
Those multiple meanings led Vogue to see the collar as possibly “a sartorial expression of her dissent,” with a nod to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The late justice was known for her dissent collars, worn when she dissented and when she arrived at the court the day after Trump’s first election in 2016.
Blackman is troubled by the possibility of a talisman meaning. Even if Jackson didn’t intend to convey a message that she was protecting herself from evil, “there is clearly the (literal) appearance of impropriety,” he wrote at the Volokh Conspiracy.
I love this so much!
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) January 21, 2025
At the inauguration, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wore a distinctive collar adorned with cowrie shells, which are believed to offer protection from evil in African traditions.
This choice mirrors the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s practice of using… pic.twitter.com/BX6WzvwVt5
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