Ketanji Brown Jackson breaks double-glass ceiling with Historic U.S. Supreme Court Justice nomination
NATIONWIDE (April 7, 2022) – On February 25, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the 116th Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Because of her diverse and broad public service, Judge Jackson has a unique appreciation of how critical it is for the justice system to be fair and impartial. With multiple law enforcement officials in her family, she also has a personal understanding of the stakes of the legal system. Judge Jackson’s brother served as a police officer in Baltimore after serving in the U.S. Army and being deployed to Iraq and Egypt and two of her uncles were police officers in Miami.
On April 7, 2022, a bipartisan group of Senators confirmed Judge Jackson’s nomination to become the 116th member of the United State Supreme Court.
After Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement, President Biden conducted a rigorous process to identify his replacement. President Biden sought a candidate with exceptional credentials, unimpeachable character, and unwavering dedication to the rule of law. And an individual who is committed to equal justice under the law and who understands the profound impact that the Supreme Court’s decisions have on the lives of the American people.
Former President Obama nominated Jackson for the district court position in D.C. in 2013, where she served for eight years before elevating to the D.C. appellate court last year. When answering a question during her last confirmation hearing about her judicial philosophy, Jackson said:
“I do not have a judicial philosophy per se, other than to apply the same method of thorough analysis to every case, regardless of the parties.”
Over the course of her legal career, Jackson has sat for three Senate confirmations and received minimal pushback from senators in that time. She was confirmed to her current position last summer with 53 votes in the Senate, including those of Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
During her time as a district judge she ruled in several high-profile cases, including a number involving the Trump administration.
President nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve as the next Justice on the Supreme Court. Judge Jackson is one of our nation’s brightest legal minds and has an unusual breadth of experience in our legal system, giving her the perspective to be an exceptional Justice.
About Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
Judge Jackson was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Miami, Florida. Her parents attended segregated primary schools, then attended historically black colleges and universities. Both started their careers as public school teachers and became leaders and administrators in the Miami-Dade Public School System. When Judge Jackson was in preschool, her father attended law school. In a 2017 lecture, Judge Jackson traced her love of the law back to sitting next to her father in their apartment as he tackled his law school homework—reading cases and preparing for Socratic questioning—while she undertook her preschool homework coloring books.
Judge Jackson stood out as a high achiever throughout her childhood. She was a speech and debate star who was elected “mayor” of Palmetto Junior High and student body president of Miami Palmetto Senior High School. But like many Black women, Judge Jackson still faced naysayers. When Judge Jackson told her high school guidance counselor she wanted to attend Harvard, the guidance counselor warned that she should not set her “sights so high.”
That did not stop Judge Jackson. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, then attended Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Judge Jackson lives with her husband, Patrick, and their two daughters, in Washington, DC.
Experience
Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
Vice Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission
Public defender
Supreme Court Clerk
Perspective on the Legal System
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
