Who Is Ketanji Brown Jackson? First Black Woman To Serve US Supreme Court

Who is Ketanji Brown Jackson? The United States President Joe Biden nominated the federal appellate judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first black woman to serve the US Supreme Court. This nomination was done by the President on February 25, 2022. President Biden said that the nation's top court needs to reflect "the full talent and greatness of our nation (US)."

The 51-year-old Jackson was picked to succeed the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. The nomination of Jackson for the US Supreme Court, reportedly, fulfils the campaign promise that was made by Biden two years ago while he campaigned for the Democratic presidential candidate.

Yesterday, he appeared at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris and Jackson. He also said that it has been long since the US government and courts have not "looked like America." Talking about Jackson, he said that she has "proven consensus builder and a "distinguished jurist." He also said, "During this process, I looked for someone like Justice Breyer who has a pragmatic understanding that the law must work for the American people."

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The Senate was divided in a tie between Republicans and Democrats. In the United States, in the due process of the Supreme Court justice nomination, the President chooses his preferred candidate and the Senate votes to confirm the nominee. The requirement is a simple majority.

In the US federal judiciary, there is only three percent of Black women. This is the data from the Federal Judicial Center, which is the research arm of the court system.

Who is Ketanji Brown Jackson?

Jackson currently serves the US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit. She has two degrees from Harvard University. There she completed her undergraduate and was also a law student. She was also the editor of the Harvard Law Review in 1996.

Once her school guidance counsellor had asked her not to get her hopes high when she conveyed her ambition to study in the Ivy League school. She was born in Washington, DC but grew up in Miami.

She said, "Some of my earliest memories of him (her father) sitting at the kitchen table, reading his law books." Now, she might be succeeding a person, to whom she had served as a clerk in 1999-2000. She also praised the generosity of her former boss Justice Breyer.

From 2013 to 2021, she served as the District Judge of the United States. Until 2014, she was also a Vice-Chair and Commissioner on the United States Sentencing Commission.

In June 2021, she received her commission as the United States Circuit Judge.