02/25/02 By Sofia Mendes
On Friday, President Joe Biden announced his nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court introducing her as the first Black woman selected to serve on the country’s highest court and fulfilling his campaign promise to further diversify the court
Along with being the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court, Jackson is also the first former public defender although she has the same elite law background as the other judges, attending Harvard as an undergraduate and for law school, as well as serving on the U.S Sentencing Commission before becoming a federal judge in 2013.
Currently, Jackson serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a position that three current justices previously held prior to serving on the Supreme Court.
Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court is subject to confirmation by the Senate where Democrats barely hold the majority. Senators have set the goal of confirming Jackson’s nomination by April 8, although they face multiple challenges including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the absence of a Democratic senator needed to maintain Senate majority.
Biden has said that he was hoping to select a nominee similar to retiring Justice Breyer whose votes tended to skew to the left, but was willing to see both sides of situations. Jackson stated on Friday that although the Senate will decide if she will fill Breyer’s seat, she could never fill his shoes.
Jackson remarks that her interest in the law began when she was in preschool and her father in law school. She remembers that they would sit together and while she colored, he studied the law. Her younger brother who served in the Army, is now also a lawyer.