WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) – President Biden intends to nominate federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to CBS News.
With Republicans and Democrats each controlling 50 seats in the Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes, Jackson will need support from all 50 Democrats — if GOP senators oppose her nomination — in order to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, which she is expected to receive.
The pace of the confirmation process for Jackson is expected to be similar to that of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whose nomination to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020 was approved by the GOP-controlled Senate in less than 30 days.
If confirmed, she will be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court and fill the seat that will be vacated by Justice Stephen Breyer when he retires at the end of the term.
In selecting Jackson, Biden delivers on a campaign promise to further diversify the high court.
Jackson is an attorney who possesses the type of elite legal background found in other high court justices, but who’s worked as a public defender.
Jackson, 51, who was born in Washington D.C., was a star student at Miami Palmetto Senior High School in Pinecrest. She was on the debate team, student body president, and a Silver Knight Award nominee. When she was a senior, she expressed an interest in becoming a judge.
In her senior yearbook Jackson said, “I want to go into law and eventually have a judicial appointment.”
President Joe Biden selected her to replace Attorney General Merrick Garland on the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, considered to be the nation’s second most powerful court, in March 2021, and she was confirmed by the Senate in June.
Before joining the D.C. Circuit, Jackson was a U.S. district judge in the District of Columbia and vice-chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. At her confirmation hearing to the federal district court, Jackson was introduced by then-Congressman Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin who would go on to serve as House speaker before retiring in 2018. Ryan and Jackson are related by marriage.
Jackson also worked as an assistant special counsel for the sentencing panel for two years, followed by two years as an assistant federal public defender. The judge has been hailed for her work as a former public defender, as judicial groups argue there is a dearth of professional diversity on the federal bench.