Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson clerked for Justice Breyer earlier in her profession.
Tom Williams / Pool / AFP
President Joe Biden on Friday formally nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to switch retiring Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who introduced in January that was retiring on the finish of the present session.
“I’m proud to announce that I’m nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court,” Biden stated in a tweet, calling Jackson “considered one of our nation’s brightest authorized minds and shall be an distinctive Justice.”
I’m proud to announce that I’m nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court. Currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, she is considered one of our nation’s brightest authorized minds and shall be an distinctive Justice.https://t.co/iePvhz1YaA pic.twitter.com/Nzqv2AtN8h
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 25, 2022
Her nomination fulfills Biden’s promise to pick a Black lady for the excessive courtroom, a vow he first made as a presidential candidate in 2020.
The president beforehand nominated Jackson, 51, to switch Attorney General Merrick Garland in March to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, thought-about one of the necessary federal courts within the nation and a pipeline to the Supreme Court.
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Jackson was confirmed by the Senate in an uncontentious listening to three months later, with Republicans Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Lindsey Graham becoming a member of all Senate Democrats in voting for the appointment.
After receiving each her bachelor’s and regulation levels from Harvard, Jackson clerked for Breyer in 1999. She additionally served as a US district decide within the District of Columbia and on the US Sentencing Commission.
Before Biden’s announcement, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump — who has represented the households of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery — praised Jackson in an op-ed for The Hill, saying she had “the tutorial credentials and dedication” required for the Supreme Court.
“There shall be no studying curve for Judge Jackson — she is aware of the regulation, has adjudicated it nicely, and is battle-tested,” he added.
Jackson has reportedly been on Biden’s brief record of potential nominees since Breyer’s announcement, alongside California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger and Judge J. Michelle Childs, who serves on the US District Court in Columbia, South Carolina.
Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator from Alabama, has been tapped to information Jackson throughout her Senate affirmation course of.
If she is confirmed, Jackson shall be solely the third Black justice within the Supreme Court’s 233-year historical past. It would additionally symbolize the primary time there have been two African American justices on the bench on the similar time, in addition to the primary time 4 girls served concurrently.
The White House did not instantly reply to a request for extra remark.