On February 25, 2022 US President Joe Biden nominated Ms Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first Black woman to serve as a US Supreme Court Justice. The nomination was viewed as another step forward in seeking racial justice and equality. Today, on April 7, 2022 the US Senate has confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
The Senate voted 53 to 47 to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the 116th Supreme Court justice. Joseph Ketanji Brown will be sworn in this summer, becoming the first Black woman to serve on the US highest court. Ms. Ketanji Brown Jackson will also be the first Supreme Court justice since Thurgood Marshall to have represented indigent criminal defendants. I Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman elected to her job, presided over the vote.
The nomination by US President Joe Biden of the highly qualified and experienced Ms Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first Black woman to serve as a US Supreme Court Justice was hailed as a major event. The nomination, the senate's confirrmation and the upcoming swearing in are a major step towards a fair representation of Blacks in justice and for racial equality. As a US Supreme Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson would be expected to push for major legal decisions impacting racial justice, racial equality and, in all aspects, justice.
Her hearing before the Senate Judiciary committee was marred with partisan attacks rather that focusing on her outstanding qualifications.
As expected, some right-wing conservative people resisted the nomination. But how some of them expressed their frustation was a shocking surprise. In fact, just after the nomination, the Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, one of the loud voices of the right-wing conservatists in the US, claimed that the nomination of Ms Ketanji Brown Jackson was an attempt to “defile” the US Supreme Court and to “humiliate and degrade” the United States of America (see here: USA - Politics: Small African Country of Rwanda in the Middle of the Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson for the US Supreme Court ).
A the end 3 Republicans decided to vote to confirm for Jackson's Supreme Court nomination. These include Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. All the 48 Senate Democrats and the two independents who caucus with Democrats, voted for Ketanji Jackson's confirmation.
Following the US Senate vote, US President Joe Biden, whose major campaign promise was to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, praised the vote as a historic moement for the US and tweeted:
"We've taken another step toward making our highest court reflect the diversity of America,"
Ms Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1996, After her graduation, she clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer. She will replace Justice Breyer who will formally retire this summer. Ms Jackson then worked as a public defender. Once confirmed, Jackson will be first Supreme Court justice since Thurgood Marshall to have represented indigent criminal defendants.
Ms Ketanji Brown Jackson later served eight years as a federal trial court judge and was confirmed in June 2021 for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
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