History will be made on Friday, when President Joe Biden announces that Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a tweet, Biden said Jackson “is one of our nation’s brightest legal minds and will be an exceptional Justice.”
It is expected that the president will nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the high court: The announcement is expected Friday afternoon
If confirmed, the 51-year-old Jackson, currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, will replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who said in January he will retire from the court.
Explaining the choice, a White House official said Jackson is seen as “one of our nation’s brightest legal minds” and noted her career ranges from clerking for Breyer himself to serving as an appellate judge and on the U.S. Sentencing Commission as well as a federal public defender. Biden has made a point with his judicial nominees to draw from those with criminal defense experience.
The official also highlighted Jackson’s history of bipartisan support before the Senate, including being confirmed to the D.C. Circuit. That vote was 53-to-44, with yeses from Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Perhaps mindful of the slim Democratic majority in the Senate ahead of November’s midterms, the White House official urged a “fair and timely confirmation and hearing.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has already vowed to do just that.
Born in Washington, D.C., but raised in Miami, Jackson graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She clerked for outgoing Justice Breyer for a term that began in 1999; he called her “brilliant” and praised her “common sense” and “thoughtfulness,” according to SCOTUS Blog.
Jackson has said her time as a public defender informed her work as a trial judge because of how little her clients knew about the legal process.
