Washington (NewsNation Now) – On Friday, President Joe Biden announced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his candidate to replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breer, who is stepping down.
Jackson is the first black woman to be elected to the country’s highest court.
“I am proud to announce that I am nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court. She currently works at the U.S. Court of Appeals in DC Circuit, she is one of our country’s brightest lawyers and will be an exceptional judge. ” This is stated in a statement by the White House.
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In Jackson, Biden is fulfilling his campaign promise to make a historic appointment and further diversify the court, which for nearly two centuries has consisted entirely of white people. He has chosen a lawyer who will be the first former public defender in the Supreme Court, although she also has the elite legal experience of other judges.
Jackson would become the second black judge of the current court – Judge Clarence Thomas, Conservative, second – and only third in history.
She will also be the only sixth woman to work on the court, and her confirmation will mean that for the first time four women will sit together in a court of nine people.
The current court includes three women, one of whom is the first Latin American in the court, Judge Sonia Satamayor.
Jackson will join the Liberal minority in a Conservative-dominated court that is considering reducing abortion rights and will consider ending the positive action in college admission and limiting voting rights efforts to increase minority representation.
Biden takes the place that will released Breerwho is retiring this summer.
Jackson, 51, at the beginning of his legal career once worked as one of Breyer’s lawyers. She studied at Harvard as an undergraduate and law school, and also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an agency that develops federal sentencing policy before becoming a federal judge in 2013.
Senate Legal Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has said he wants the Senate to make rapid progress on the nomination, and senators have set a goal to approve the nomination by mid-April. But the deadline could be complicated by a number of things, including events between Russia and Ukraine and the long absence of Democrat Senator Ben Ray Luhan of New Mexico, who suffered a stroke last month and dropped out for weeks. Democrats will need Luhan’s vote to confirm Biden’s election if it is not supported by any Republican.
Biden during the 2020 presidential election campaign promised to nominate a black woman for any vacancy in the Supreme Courtthat would be the first historical. Biden’s fellow Democrats have a small majority in the U.S. Senate, which under the U.S. Constitution can approve candidates for the Supreme Court.
According to a person familiar with the process, Biden also interviewed J. Michelle Childs and Leandra Kruger.
“It would be an honor for me as president to appoint the first African-American woman. After all, the country should look like. Time is long gone, ”Biden said in February 2020, shortly before the South Carolina presidential primaries.
This story is evolving. Update for updates.