History made in US Supreme Court as Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson

Washington: History has been made in the US Supreme Court, with the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first black woman elevated to the bench.

After days of bitterly divided Senate confirmation hearings, President Joe Biden’s chosen nominee was confirmed with a final vote of 53 to 47, mostly along partisan lines.

President Joe Biden congratulates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as they watch the Senate vote on her confirmation on Thursday.Credit: AP

Despite being one of the most highly credentialed jurists to be nominated for the Supreme Court, only three Republicans joined Democrats to endorse Jackson’s appointment on Friday (AEST): senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney.

The narrow vote is nonetheless a much-needed victory for Biden, with Democrats hopeful that the groundbreaking pick will help to reinvigorate their party base ahead of the midterm elections in November.

While Jackson’s elevation won’t change the make-up of the bench - where conservatives still hold six out of nine seats - it marks the first chance Biden has had to shape America’s highest court as it oversees contentious issues such as abortion, immigration, voting restrictions and gun rights.

“Judge Jackson’s confirmation was a historic moment for our nation,” Biden tweeted after the vote, alongside a picture of him and Jackson watching the results from the Roosevelt Room in the White House.

“We’ve taken another step toward making our highest court reflect the diversity of America. She will be an incredible Justice, and I was honoured to share this moment with her.”

She is the first black woman elevated to the US Supreme Court in its 233-year history. The court has had 115 justices in that time but only two others have been black, both men: Thurgood Marshall, who was appointed under president Lyndon Johnson, and Clarence Thomas, who is still on the bench and was appointed under president George WH Bush.

It is also the first time the court has had a justice with a background as a public defender, a role that involves being a court-appointed attorney representing clients who can’t afford to pay for a lawyer.

This has energised criminal justice reformers who believe that having a judge who has helped the legal system’s most vulnerable defendants is much needed on the Supreme Court.

However, Republicans spent the confirmation hearings interrogating Jackson’s time in this role, along with her sentencing record in selected child pornography cases, which they argued was too light.

Jackson, who was previously a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, rejected this suggestion, testifying that “nothing could be further from the truth” and vowing to be a neutral arbiter on the court.

Her first term will be marked by several cases involving race relations, including a legal dispute centring on Harvard University’s admission policies and their use of affirmative action.

Jackson, who earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard and is currently on its board, has already agreed to recuse herself from the highly anticipated case.

Jackson will replace liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who will retire from the bench later this year after 27 years. In nominating her last month, Biden described Jackson as an eminently qualified jurist who would bring to the court an “independent mind” and “uncompromising integrity”.

He also noted that 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,” he said at the time.

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