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Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Becomes The First Black Woman Confirmed To Serve On Supreme Court

April 07, 2022

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Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first black woman to be elevated to the Supreme Court when the Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s pick today. The victory was celebrated by Jackson, Biden, Democrats, and the NAACP in spite of the wider GOP’s attempts to smear Jackson’s name. 

Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmation Obtained



Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has become the first black woman to be elevated to the Supreme Court after the Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s pick today. 

With a final vote of 53 to 47,  all 50 democratic caucus members supported Jackson including GOP Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney. Vice President Kamala Harris watched over the vote, with Jackson and Biden watching the vote together in the White House.

This means that Jackson will take office at the end of the court’s current term, which will be around June or July, when Justice Stephen Breyer is expected to step down.  Her appointment will not disrupt the current 6 to 3 conservative balance on the Supreme Court.

“This is a wonderful day, a joyous day, an inspiring day for the Senate, for the Supreme Court and for the United States of America,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday, calling Jackson “brilliant,” “beloved,” and saying she “belongs” on the Supreme Court.  “This is one of the great moments of American history,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, unsuccessfully fought against her nomination in recent weeks. “These days, the Senate takes an assertive role. In particular, most senators do not merely check résumés and basic legal qualifications but also look into judicial philosophy,” he said Wednesday. 

McConnell and other GOP limitations have criticized Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., for not embracing “originalism,” a framework of narrow constitutional interpretation popular in conservative legal and activist circles. Some have also accused her of having issued lenient sentences in cases involving child exploitation when she was a trial judge.

Before the vote Thursday, McConnell faulted Jackson for not denouncing “the insane concept of court packing.”  Jackson had declined to answer this and stated that the size of the court is a decision for Congress and not judges, which is a similar statement by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who McConnell supported in 2020. 

Collins and Murkowski voted last year to confirm Jackson to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the job she currently holds. Romney, who voted no last year, said his concerns were alleviated after a long meeting with Jackson.

Romney rejected the criticisms of other Republicans, saying Jackson’s judicial approach is “within the mainstream,” even if he does not expect to agree with all of her rulings. 

“She’s also a highly qualified, intelligent, capable person,” he said in an interview. “And I wish her very best.”

Jackson previously served as a U.S. district court judge, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013 and she served the U.S. Sentencing Commission and as a public defender.  The Biden Administration sought both racial and professional diversity in judicial nominees, which means more public defenders and civil rights lawyers, and fewer prosecutors and corporate lawyers. The NAACP celebrated the vote, praising Jackson for overcoming “racist attacks” during the confirmation process.

“Today’s vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court is of enormous consequence to our nation and to history. After weeks and weeks of racist, misogynistic and stomach-churning attacks, we cannot wait to finally call her Justice Jackson,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

Susan Collins Announces Her Support



GOP Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) became the first Republican to support Kentanji Brown Jackson, which all but assured Jackson’s confirmation as the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.

It required a second meeting with Jackson for the Maine senator to feel comfortable that the federal judge and former public defender would not engage in “bending the law to meet a personal preference,” as Collins told The New York Times in an interview.

“In recent years, senators on both sides of the aisle have gotten away from what I perceive to be the appropriate process for evaluating judicial nominees,” said Susan Collins. “In my view, the role under the Constitution assigned to the Senate is to look at the credentials, experience and qualifications of the nominee. It is not to assess whether a nominee reflects the individual ideology of a senator or would vote exactly as an individual senator would want.”

Graham On the Attack Again



Before the confirmations had started, the GOP, specifically Republican Senator Lindsey Graham had promised to the nation “I’m going to listen to the evidence, I’m going to listen to the hearings, and by the way she’ll be treated much better than Democrats have typically treated Republican nominees like Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh. It’ll be a respectful, deep dive into her record which I think is entirely appropriate for a lifetime appointment.”

This would, come to find out, be proven false. From Marsha Blackburn’s condescending lecture on the “white privilege” and her beliefs that it doesn’t exist, Ted Cruz’s asinine question on if babies could be racists, and Lindsey Graham’s attack on her yesterday. 

It continued throughout the hearing.  In the second round with Judge Jackson, the South Carolina senator once again used his time to air known right-wing grievances, particularly over the way Democrats have supposedly mistreated conservative judicial nominees, even going so far to suggest that Jackson, a Black woman, should be happy about how “easy” her confirmation process has been.



Graham On The Attack



If there were two words that would describe Republican Senator Lindsey Graham during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Justice, it would be aggressive and combative. 

It was a heated exchange between Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on the third day of the hearings after the senator revived a line of attack on the judge’s sentencing record in cases that involved  images of child sexual abuse.

For Graham, the exchange was reminiscent of his angry diatribe during the caustic confirmation hearings of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. His temper that was displayed showed a different Lindsey Graham who had voted less than a year ago to confirm Judge Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Graham’s aggressive questioning these past two days — which has included rhetorical questions, constant interruptions and lectures — implied that he was unlikely to vote to confirm her.

Babies? Racist?



The idea of subtly is not a word within the Republicans’ dictionary. At least not when it comes to Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing. 

From Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Day 1 lecturing about the “so-called white privilege” not existing in America, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) continued on Day 2, grilling Jackson about an anti-racist children’s book, Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Baby. This is a book that is not even included in the school list of anti-racist resources.

“Do you agree with this book that is being taught with kids that babies are racist?” Cruz asked in front of a blown-up poster of one of the book’s pages.

White Privilege Isn’t Real?



Confirmation hearings for Kentanji Brown Jackson began on Monday. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were more than a little concerned about President Biden’s choice to replace the former justice, targeting the first female African-American nominee on issues of race and white privilege.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn) took centerstage lecturing Jackson that white privilege does not exist in America.   This in spite of multiple studies have proven white privilege and the evidence that, of the 114 justices that have been confirmed to sit on the country’s highest court, only two of them are Black and only one Latina, Justice Sonia Sotomayor.“You serve on the board of a school that teaches, kindergartners, five-year-old children, that they can choose their gender and that teaches them about so-called white privilege,” Blackburn said.



McConnell: Undecided



Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell stated this past Sunday that he hasn’t decided on if he will vote to confirm President Biden’s nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the Supreme Court. McConnell stated that he was troubled by her refusal to object to expanding the nine-justice court.

McConnell (R-Ky.) said he met with Jackson in his Capitol Hill office last week and asked if she’d oppose expanding the court. “She wouldn’t do that. So, in the meantime, the committee will ask her all the tough questions. I haven’t made a final decision as to how I’m going to vote,” McConnell said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”“I’m going to listen to the evidence, I’m going to listen to the hearings, and by the way she’ll be treated much better than Democrats have typically treated Republican nominees like Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh,” he then added on. “It’ll be a respectful, deep dive into her record which I think is entirely appropriate for a lifetime appointment.”

Tough Questioning



Hearings for the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson began on March 21.

As Judge Brown has been confirmed by the Senate three times; Democrats won’t be relying on Republican buy-in to complete her journey to the Supreme Court, as they only need a simple majority to confirm her. If Democrats are unified in this 50-50 Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris could be the vote to break the tie if need be.

Judge Ketanji Brown’s Harvard Connections Questioned



In her upcoming Senate confirmation hearing, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson may be asked if she will recuse herself from one of the first major cases she would be hearing as a justice – a challenge to Harvard University’s use of race as a factor in undergraduate admissions.

Jackson, who is an alumnus of Harvard University and Harvard Law School, is currently sitting on the university’s Board of Overseers whose role is to “provide counsel to the University’s leadership on priorities, plans, and strategic initiatives,” according to its website.

This fall, the justices are expected to hear a challenge to the school’s admissions policy brought by a group of Asian-American students who alleged they were illegally targeted and rejected at a disproportionately higher rate because of their race. Decisions regarding this case could determine the fate of affirmative action policies nationwide.

History Set In Motion



On Friday, February 25, 2022, in the midst of worldwide attention on the upheaval in the Ukraine, President Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to make history as the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in the nation.

As he introduced Jackson to the White House, he stated, “Today, as we watch freedom and liberty under attack abroad, I’m here to fulfill my responsibilities under the Constitution, to preserve freedom and liberty here in the United States of America. For too long, our government, our courts haven’t looked like America. I believe it’s time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications, and that we inspire all young people to believe that they can one day serve their country at the highest level.”

51-year-old Kentanji Jackson currently sits on DC’s federal court of appeals, and was considered the front-runner for the vacant spot since the moment Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement.

Republicans and White Supremacy vs Ketanji Brown Jackson



When she was announced, Republican Senators immediately went on the attack on Ketanji Brown Jackson, and portrayed her as a pawn of the left. 

While Democrats praised the qualifications of Biden’s choice, Republicans sought to criticize her educational background, record on crime and the support she holds from left-wing groups. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who ironically voted for Jackson to serve as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit eight months ago, appeared to be against her nomination, saying in a tweet that “the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again.”

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