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It’s only right that Black history be made during Black history month. President Biden has nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to sit on the Supreme Court. If she is confirmed, she will be the first Black woman ever to be a U.S Supreme Court justice, CNN reported. Jackson has been a top contender to replace Justice Stephen Breyer since his retirement. Jackson served as a clerk for Justice Breyer from 1999 to 2000. Jackson is currently a judge at Washington D.C’s federal appellate court.
Jackson was raised in Miami, Florida and attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School. During her career, she has been a federal public defender and a commissioner on the US Sentencing Commission. She was also appointed to the federal district court by former president Barack Obama.
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Nominating Jackson is something Biden promised to do while he was running for president. During a debate in South Carolina, he said he was going to make “sure there’s a Black woman on the Supreme Court” to “get everyone represented.”
Jackson isn’t the only one in her family whose involved in justice and law. Her uncle served as Miami’s police chief while her brother was a detective at Baltimore’s sex crimes unit. Her parents, however, were educators and worked as teachers at Miami public schools.
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Jackson was a standout during her time as a federal judge in Washington, D.C. and showed that she has a liberal philosophy. She denied Trump’s attempts to cut grants for teen pregnancy programs and his efforts to fast-track deportation. In 2021, she was a member of the unanimous circuit panel that demanded that Trump’s White House documents be submitted to the committee that was investigating the Jan.6, 2021 attack on the U.S Capitol. She also kept former White House Counsel Don McGahn from testifying about Trump’s alleged obstruction of the investigation into Russia’s interference regarding the 2016 presidential election.
Jackson and two other Black judges were candidates for Biden’s nominations: California Supreme Court justice Leondra R. Kruger and South Carolina Federal District Court judge J. Michelle Childs.
