R. Brooke Jackson

Richard Brooke Jackson (born March 5, 1947) is a senior United States district judge serving on the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Jackson formerly served as a Colorado state judge.

Early life and education In March 1947, Jackson was born in Bozeman, Montana. In 1969, Jackson earned an Artium Baccalaureus from Dartmouth College. He then earned a Juris Doctor in 1972 from Harvard Law School.

Career Jackson spent 26 years with the law firm Holland & Hart, including as an associate from 1972 until 1978, and as a partner from 1978 until 1998. Jackson was appointed to the state bench in 1998, and in 2003 was named Chief Judge for Colorado's First Judicial District, which covers Jefferson County, Colorado and Gilpin County, Colorado. Jackson's nomination lapsed at the end of 2010. President Obama renominated him on January 5, 2011. The United States Senate confirmed him by unanimous consent on August 2, 2011. He received his judicial commission on September 1, 2011.

On November 22, 2016, Jackson ruled in favor of Dana Zzyym, a Navy veteran who was born intersex and uses they/them pronouns, after Zzyym sued the U.S. State Department for a passport that would reflect a gender other than “male” or “female.” Zzyym had applied for a U.S. passport to attend the International Intersex Forum in Mexico City but was denied because they did not select “male” or “female” on their application. Jackson ruled that the State Department cannot deny a passport to a person who declines to select either “male” or “female” as their gender in their passport application.