The White House announced on Friday that President Joe Biden had picked Ketanji Brown Jackson of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, creating history by appointing a Black woman to this important role.
Jackson, 51, has long been considered a front-runner for the position, especially after Biden promoted her from the trial court to the appeals court, which is second only to the Supreme Court in terms of power.
According to a White House statement, Jackson boasted a unique understanding of how important it was for the judicial system to be fair and unbiased, especially since she was surrounded by many law enforcement officials during her upbringing. Biden and Jackson are set to make a formal announcement of the nomination at the White House, per report.
When she rejected former President Donald Trump’s expansive claims of executive privilege in the House’s probe of Trump’s contacts with Ukraine, Jackson gained the respect of left-leaning lawyers. Two months ago, Jackson was a part of the D.C. Circuit ruling that rejected Trump’s attempt to prevent his White House records from being released to a House committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incident.
Jackson, who was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in South Florida, would become the Supreme Court’s third African-American justice. Her appointment also fulfills Biden’s campaign vow to appoint an African-American woman to the Supreme Court.
With the exception of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Jackson has the Ivy League pedigree shared by every member of the Supreme Court. Jackson’s qualifications align with calls from liberal lawyers for more judges and justices with public interest and criminal defense backgrounds.