Biden to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court
Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice
When President Barack Obama nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2012, she was introduced by an unlikely advocate before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a relative through marriage, said of Jackson, "Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, for her integrity, it is unequivocal." Ryan added, "She’s an amazing person, and I favorably recommend her consideration."
Jackson was confirmed by a bipartisan voice vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 2013, and Ryan would become the 54th speaker of the House in 2015.
BIDEN TO NOMINATE JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON TO SUPREME COURT
Last April, President Joe Biden nominated Jackson to the seat being vacated by Attorney General Merrick Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and she was confirmed by a bipartisan majority that included Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, later that June.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to be a U.S. Circuit judge for the District of Columbia, is sworn in to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on April 28, 2021, in Washington. (Kevin Lamarque-Pool/Getty Images)
When Jackson is confirmed to the Supreme Court, she will be in good company making the jump from the D.C. Circuit. Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh were judges on that bench before their promotions. It’s also worth noting that both former Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg made the same transition to the nation’s highest court.
When President Biden announced his intention to appoint the first Black female jurist to the bench during the 2020 Democratic primary, many campaign observers dismissed the pledge as political posturing meant to rally African American voters, who would be key to his election.
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With Justice Stephen Breyer announcing his retirement earlier this year, we saw the flurry of attacks intensify from conservative circles that somehow Biden’s campaign promise would deliver an unqualified nominee to the bench, even before we had an announced candidate from the White House. That could not be further from the truth with regard to Jackson, who has nearly nine years of prior judicial experience, which is more than four current justices (Thomas, Roberts, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett) had combined.
It’s worth noting that during the 1980 general election, Ronald Reagan made a similar pledge to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court. And, with the death of Justice Ginsburg in 2020, President Trump announced he would replace her with a woman, eventually nominating Barrett.
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It would take 178 years after our nation’s founding for the first non-White man to be appointed and confirmed to the Supreme Court with nomination of Thurgood Marshall in 1967. When Sandra Day O’Connor joined the highest court in the land, more than 192 years had passed. Now 233 years after our founding, the Supreme Court is set to see the first Black woman jurist in Judge Jackson joining its ranks.
We as Americans deserve the most qualified and experienced judges ruling on our behalf. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has the "intellect, character and integrity" to serve on the highest court in the land, but don’t take my word for it – take Speaker Paul Ryan’s.
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