The Senate of the United States of America on Thursday confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
Shattering a historic barrier by securing her place as the first Black female justice, this gives President Joe Biden a bipartisan endorsement for his effort to diversify the court.
Jackson, a 51 year-old appeals court judge with nine years experience on the federal bench, was confirmed 53-47, mostly along party lines but with three Republican votes.
Presiding was Vice President Kamala Harris, also the first Black woman to reach that high office.
Jackson will take her seat when Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer, solidifying the liberal wing of the 6-3 conservative-dominated court.
During the four days of Senate hearings last month, Jackson spoke of her parents’ struggles through racial segregation and said her “path was clearer” than theirs as a Black American after the enactment of civil rights laws.
She attended Harvard University, served as a public defender, worked at a private law firm and was appointed as a member of the US Sentencing Commission.
Jackson will be just the third Black justice, after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and the sixth woman.
She will join three other women, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan Amy Coney Barrett – meaning that four of the nine justices will be women for the first time in history.
Ketanji Brown Jackson will secure a legacy on the court for Biden and fulfill his 2020 campaign pledge to nominate the first Black female justice.
