BREAKING: Senate confirms Jackson to Supreme Court
Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes the first Black woman to sit on the nation's highest court
The U.S. Senate voted 53-47 on Thursday to confirm D.C. circuit court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, breaking a historic barrier in the court’s 233-year history.
The 51-year-old Jackson becomes the first Black woman to be confirmed to the nation’s highest court, and only the third Black Justice in the court’s history.
The vote follows a confirmation hearing where Democrats heaped praise on Jackson’s historic nomination, while their Republican counterparts accused her of being to lenient on cases pertaining to child pornography. The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked on Jackson’s confirmation, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer used a discharge motion to bring the nomination to the Senate floor.
All Democratic Senators, including Georgia’s Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, voted to confirm Jackson. They were joined by three Republicans: Lisa Murkowski (AK), Susan Collins (ME) and Mitt Romney (UT). Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the historic vote.
Judge Jackson was nominated by President Joe Biden to replace longtime Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced earlier this year that he will retire at the end of the court’s current term. A member of the court’s liberal bloc, Breyer was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Jackson’s confirmation is not expected to change the court’s ideological makeup.
Jackson grew up in Miami, FL and attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School. Her parents, Johnny and Ellery, are both HBCU graduates. graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1992. She then obtained her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1996.
After law school, she clerked for several federal judges and spent some time in private practice at a Washington law firm. In 1999, she earned a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, the man whose seat she is now set to fill.
After clerking with Breyer, Jackson returned to private practice. In 2005, she became an assisstant federal public defender, where she argued cases before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Thursday’s vote is Jackson’s fourth time being confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated her to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. In 2012, Obama nominated her to a D.C. district court. She was confirmed by voice vote both times.
In 2021, President Biden nominated Jackson to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, a court that is viewed by legal observers as a pipeline to the Supreme Court. Three of the court’s current Justices are alumni of the D.C. court. Jackson succeeded Judge Merrick Garland, who was nominated for Attorney General. She was confirmed 53-44.
Jackson has now reached the pinnacle of her career, earning a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. She will now join a court that has been highly politicized in recent years. She will play a huge role in deciding the fate of the country’s most pressing issues, such as healthcare, marriage equality, reproductive rights and campaign finance reform.
Once again, it goes without saying that this confirmation would not be possible if not for the Democratic victories in the January 2021 U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia. Sen. Lindsey Graham said himself that Jackson would not have been confirmed in a Republican-controlled Senate.