The exclusive D.C. social club of Ketanji Brown Jackson explained

On a questionnaire for her ongoing nomination to the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listed among her affiliations the Cosmos Club, an exclusive D.C. social club near Dupont Circle. Jackson, who was born in Washington and served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013 until last year, when she was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, said she was elected as a club member in 2019, and described it as a place that “hosts social events and is a meeting spot for members, both national and international, from a variety of professions.” After the questionnaire was released, the Republican National Committee sought to wield her membership against her credibility, citing it as one of “multiple groups that raise questions about her judgment and how she would rule on the Supreme Court” and referring to the Cosmos Club specifically as “a private D.C. club of the Washington elite.”

It’s true that the club, founded in 1878, has welcomed a number of high-society members during its history, including presidents, diplomats and noted writers. But those familiar with the “traditional” social scene in the District know it as the long-standing club for the scholarly and accomplished. It’s a relic of old Washington, a place for members to gather and celebrate. And, like many other long-standing institutions, it also has an exclusionary past, one that Jackson’s own membership, as a Black woman, underscores. Here’s what you need to know about the private D.C. club that counts Jackson as a member. The club, located in historic Townsend House on Embassy Row in Washington, was founded in the 19th century by a group of scientists with a vision for “a center of good fellowship, a club that embraced the sciences and the arts, where members could meet socially and exchange ideas, where vitality would grow from the mixture of disciplines, and a library would provide a refuge for thought and learning,” according to its website. Nearly 150 years later, the Cosmos Club remains a fixture among private social clubs in the District, catering to those who are intellectually accomplished in areas such as science, literature, the arts or public service. The club has managed to persist, too, through the decline in popularity of private social clubs in recent decades. The club regularly hosts dinners, book readings and other social events for members at the mansion, where all proceedings happen under the assurance they will be kept private.