On Thursday, April 7th the Senate voted 53-47 to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court making her the first African American woman on the Supreme Court. Senators Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, and Lisa Murkowski joined the 50 Senate Democrats giving the nomination the required majority in order to pass. As the vote was gaveled in, Democrats in the Senate and from the Congressional Black Caucus exploded into applause to mark the historical confirmation.
Once Judge Jackson takes her spot on the bench, she will be the first black woman and eighth nonwhite man to sit on the high court. Before her confirmation, Judge Jackson was a clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer between 1999 and 2000, a federal public defender from 2005 to 2007, and was appointed to the D.C. Court of Appeals in 2013. Judge Jackson became the first federal public defender to ever sit on the Supreme Court.
Her confirmation did not come without pushback. Senate Republicans attempted to paint Ketanji Brown Jackson as a liberal extremist. Senate Republicans pointed to her record while sitting on the bench and her supposed soft sentences on child pornography cases. They also pointed to her position on the school board at Georgetown Day School which teaches the highly controversial critical race theory. Despite these criticisms of Judge Jackson, three Republican Senators crossed the aisle to vote in favor of Judge Jackson’s confirmation.
Judge Jackson will take the bench at the end of the current term when Justice Breyer retires. Judge Jackson will officially join the bench on October 3rd. Even with Judge Jackson sitting on the bench, the high court will still hold its 6-3 conservative majority.