On Thursday, the Senate made history by confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, giving President Biden a major victory.
Jackson’s appointment to the nation’s top court will shatter a number of barriers: she will be the court’s first Black female justice and the first former public defender.
Jackson’s confirmation was approved by a vote of 53 to 47 in the Senate. Susan Collins , Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney voted to confirm her against their party’s wishes.
Jackson’s nomination was hailed by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer as a “joyous, significant, groundbreaking day.”
“A Black woman has never — never — held the title of ‘justice’ in the Supreme Court’s 233-year history.” “Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the first, and I believe he will be the first of many,” says Schumer.
Vice President Harris presided over the chamber’s confirmation of Jackson, making history as the first female, first Black, and first Asian American person to hold the No. 2 office.
More than a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus crossed the Capitol to watch the vote in the Senate chamber.
Justice Stephen Breyer, whom she will succeed, has stated that he will retire over the summer, presuming a successor has been appointed.
However, Thursday’s vote closes a nearly 40-day race by White House and Senate Democrats eager to stamp their mark on the judiciary.
Republicans attacked Jackson’s sentencing in some child pornography cases, painting her as soft on crime, challenging her work at the Guantánamo Bay detention prison, and suggesting that she would be a “judicial activist,” among other high-profile stressful times on her way to confirmation.
“I see signs of judicial activism in Judge Jackson’s record and will vote no,” Senator Mitch McConnell remarked. “We’re about to get a new Justice with a fan club that openly opposes the rule of law. As a result, Judge Jackson will soon come to a fork in the path. The far left would be pleased with one approach to her new position. A new approach would respect the Constitution and the division of powers”, she added.
