When President Joe Biden named Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill retiring Justice Stephen Breyer’s seat on the United States Supreme Court, he fulfilled a campaign promise. If confirmed, Jackson will become the first Black female associate justice in history.
“For too long, our government and courts haven’t looked like America,” President Joe Biden said during Jackson’s nomination speech. “I believe it’s time we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation.”
The vacancy on the high court comes nearly two years after former President Donald Trump fast-tracked Amy Coney Barrett. (According to the Congressional Research Service, it takes 68.2 days to confirm a Supreme Court justice after nomination, and Barrett was confirmed 27 days after her nomination.)
“I’m truly humbled by the extraordinary honor of this nomination,” Jackson said in her nomination speech.
As with all SCOTUS picks, Jackson faces criticism from the opposing party.
“It’s not a question of saying we found the most qualified person who happens to look this way,” Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson said. “What you’re saying is we found a person who looks this way, but by the way may be qualified.”
Jackson, 51, was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in South Florida by two public school teachers. Her path to the high court differs from previous appointees. Before her nomination, Jackson served as a judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals and a judge on the D.C. District Court. She blocked the Trump administration from fast-tracking deportations for undocumented immigrants in that post.
“She’s by all accounts a liberal judge. I think she’s the choice of the radical left, but I recognize the historicity of her nomination,” former Vice President Mike Pence said on Fox News.
Jackson also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission and was the first to have previously served as a public defender–experience some on the left argue the court needs.
“So that means she was in the trenches,” former prosecutor Yodit Tewolde explained on MSNBC. “She witnessed firsthand the inequities that many Black, Brown people experience in the criminal justice system.”
If confirmed, Jackson’s first session will include cases on affirmative action, EPA regulations, and free speech.
In the more than 233-year history of the U.S. Supreme Court, there have been 115 justices. 108 have been White, two have been Black. Only five have been women.
“I can only hope that my life and career, my love of this country and the constitution and my commitment to upholding the rule of law and sacred principles upon what this great nation was founded will inspire future generations of Americans,” Jackson said.
