President Biden to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court

After much con­tem­pla­tion, Pres­i­dent Joe Biden has cho­sen a nom­i­nee to suc­ceed retir­ing Jus­tice Stephen Brey­er, the White House announced this morning.

Ketan­ji Brown Jack­son, fifty-one, is Biden’s pick.

She would be the first Black woman to join the Supreme Court in its entire history.

Jack­son is cur­rent­ly a judge on the Unit­ed States Court of Appeals for the Dis­trict of Colum­bia Cir­cuit and one of three Black women that Biden had been con­sid­er­ing as final­ists for the vacan­cy. (The oth­er final­ists were report­ed­ly Leon­dra Kruger of Cal­i­for­nia and Michelle Childs of South Carolina.)

Jack­son was nom­i­nat­ed by Biden and con­firmed to her cur­rent posi­tion on the D.C. Cir­cuit just last year (assum­ing office on June 17th, 2021) so the Pres­i­dent already knows her and has a high opin­ion of her. Jack­son was Attor­ney Gen­er­al Mer­rick Gar­land’s replace­ment. With Jack­son now head­ed to the Unit­ed States Supreme Court, that spot on the D.C. Cir­cuit Court will need to be filled again.

Before join­ing the D.C. Cir­cuit, Jack­son served for eight years on the Unit­ed States Dis­trict Court for the Dis­trict of Colum­bia, which might sound like the same thing, but is actu­al­ly a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent court. Jack­son was nom­i­nat­ed by Pres­i­dent Oba­ma for that posi­tion in late 2012 and con­firmed by a voice vote in the Sen­ate in ear­ly 2013. As it so hap­pens, Jus­tice Brey­er (who she has now been nom­i­nat­ed to replace!) con­duct­ed her swear­ing-in sev­er­al weeks lat­er, in May of 2013.

Here’s the biog­ra­phy of Jack­son pro­vid­ed by the White House:

Judge Ketan­ji Brown Jackson
Judge Jack­son has devot­ed the major­i­ty of her career to serv­ing the pub­lic — as a U.S. Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion lawyer and com­mis­sion­er; as a fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er; and as a fed­er­al judge. Judge Jack­son cur­rent­ly serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Cir­cuit. From 2013 to 2021, she served as a Unit­ed States Dis­trict Judge for the Dis­trict of Colum­bia. She has been con­firmed by the Sen­ate on a bipar­ti­san basis three times – twice as judge and once to serve on the U.S. Sen­tenc­ing Commission.

Judge Jack­son was born in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. and grew up in Mia­mi, Flori­da. Her par­ents attend­ed seg­re­gat­ed pri­ma­ry schools in the South, then attend­ed His­tor­i­cal­ly Black Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties. Both start­ed their careers as pub­lic school teach­ers and became lead­ers and admin­is­tra­tors in the Mia­mi-Dade Coun­ty Pub­lic Schools. When Judge Jack­son told her high school guid­ance coun­selor she want­ed to attend­ed Har­vard, the guid­ance coun­selor warned that Judge Jack­son should not to set her sights “so high.” That didn’t stop Judge Jack­son. She grad­u­at­ed magna cum laude from Har­vard Col­lege, then attend­ed Har­vard Law School, where she grad­u­at­ed cum laude and was an edi­tor of the Har­vard Law Review.

After law school, Judge Jack­son served in Jus­tice Breyer’s cham­bers as a law clerk. Judge Jack­son served as a fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er from 2005 to 2007, rep­re­sent­ing defen­dants on appeal who did not have the means to pay for a lawyer. If con­firmed, she would be the first for­mer fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er to serve on the Supreme Court.

Pri­or to serv­ing as a judge, Judge Jack­son fol­lowed in the foot­steps of her men­tor Jus­tice Brey­er by work­ing on the U.S. Sen­tenc­ing Commission—an impor­tant body, bipar­ti­san by design, that Pres­i­dent Biden fought to cre­ate as a mem­ber of the U.S. Sen­ate. Her work there focused on reduc­ing unwar­rant­ed sen­tenc­ing dis­par­i­ties and ensur­ing that fed­er­al sen­tences were just and proportionate.

Judge Jack­son lives with her hus­band, Patrick, who serves as Chief of the Divi­sion of Gen­er­al Surgery at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal, and two daugh­ters, in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.

The ini­tial response to Jack­son’s selec­tion among Democ­rats and pro­gres­sive orga­ni­za­tions has been over­whelm­ing­ly positive.

“Today, Pres­i­dent Biden deliv­ered on yet anoth­er cam­paign promise,” said DNC Chair Jaime Har­ri­son. “In doing so, he has made his­to­ry. By announc­ing he will nom­i­nate Judge Jack­son to the Supreme Court, Pres­i­dent Biden has put for­ward an excep­tion­al­ly qual­i­fied, tal­ent­ed jurist to serve on our nation’s high­est court.”

“Judge Jack­son will bring a wealth of knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence to the Court. Her expe­ri­ence as a pub­lic defend­er will add a vital per­spec­tive. In short, Judge Jack­son will live up to the lega­cy of Jus­tice Brey­er and the oth­er qual­i­fied jurists that have served and con­tin­ue to serve on the Supreme Court.”

“I ful­ly expect the Sen­ate will agree and con­firm Judge Jack­son with bipar­ti­san sup­port — as they have three times before.”

“Judge Jack­son will also shat­ter a long­stand­ing glass ceil­ing in the judi­cial branch of our gov­ern­ment. America’s great­est strength is the nation’s diver­si­ty. Our gov­ern­ment works best when it rep­re­sents and reflects the diverse peo­ple it serves. For too long, Black women have not seen them­selves rep­re­sent­ed on our nation’s high­est court — a court that ren­ders deci­sions that affect their dai­ly lives on every­thing from repro­duc­tive free­dom to vot­ing rights.”

“When the Sen­ate con­firms Judge Jack­son, that will final­ly change. I am so excit­ed for the coun­try to be remind­ed once again that there is noth­ing a Black woman can­not do. She can be vice pres­i­dent. She can shape the future of our nation. And yes, she can serve on the Supreme Court.”

“I look for­ward to meet­ing with Judge Ketan­ji Brown Jack­son as soon as pos­si­ble and I applaud Pres­i­dent Biden for this his­toric nom­i­na­tion — I pre­vi­ous­ly vot­ed to con­firm Judge Jack­son to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Cir­cuit and have been excep­tion­al­ly impressed by her back­ground, impres­sive cre­den­tials and sin­gu­lar ded­i­ca­tion to the law,” said Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, D‑Washington.

“In par­tic­u­lar, her back­ground as a pub­lic defend­er, mem­ber of the U.S. Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion, and daugh­ter of pub­lic school teach­ers would bring a pow­er­ful per­spec­tive to the high­est court in the land.”

“It’s impor­tant to me that the Sen­ate con­firm a can­di­date who will uphold the rights and lib­er­ties of all Amer­i­cans — espe­cial­ly giv­en the crit­i­cal cas­es that are com­ing before the Court con­cern­ing work­ers’ rights, repro­duc­tive rights, vot­ing rights, trib­al rights, and oth­er issues that mat­ter deeply to the Amer­i­can people.

“As with any Supreme Court nom­i­nee, I will care­ful­ly con­sid­er the judg­ment and qual­i­fi­ca­tions of Judge Jack­son for this life­time appointment.”

“I am ready to move as quick­ly as pos­si­ble as the con­fir­ma­tion process begins in earnest and I look for­ward to a fair and delib­er­ate process.”

“Judge Ketan­ji Brown Jack­son is emi­nent­ly qual­i­fied to serve on the Supreme Court, with more than a decade on the fed­er­al bench and dis­tin­guished ser­vice as a pub­lic defend­er and in pri­vate prac­tice,” said Sen­a­tor Ron Wyden, D‑Oregon.

“At a time when the six Repub­li­cans on the Supreme Court are re-writ­ing the law to serve the inter­ests of the Repub­li­can Par­ty, from gut­ting the Vot­ing Rights Act in the mid­dle of the night to block­ing pub­lic health mea­sures in a once-in-a-cen­tu­ry pan­dem­ic, Judge Ketan­ji Brown Jack­son will be an impor­tant voice on the Court.”

“With the nom­i­na­tion of Ketan­ji Brown Jack­son to the Supreme Court, Pres­i­dent Biden is mak­ing his­to­ry while also bring­ing the High Court clos­er to the peo­ple it serves,” said NextGen Amer­i­ca Pres­i­dent Cristi­na Tzintzún Ramirez.

“Judge Jack­son has devot­ed her career to advanc­ing labor rights, racial jus­tice and crim­i­nal jus­tice reform. Pri­or to becom­ing a fed­er­al judge, she served as a pub­lic defend­er and the vice chair of the U.S. Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion, expe­ri­ences in which she saw first­hand the way our jus­tice sys­tem works — and doesn’t work — for every­day Amer­i­cans. Her legal back­ground, root­ed in the real expe­ri­ences of real peo­ple, is exact­ly what we need on the nation’s high­est court.”

“This nom­i­na­tion is not a hard deci­sion for the Sen­ate. The Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee and the full Sen­ate should move quick­ly to con­firm Judge Jack­son and bring her pas­sion, intel­li­gence and expe­ri­ence to the Unit­ed States Supreme Court.”

“At a time when our nation’s bedrock cli­mate laws are under attack in the courts, the Supreme Court needs jus­tices who are pre­pared to uphold decades of prece­dent,” said Ever­green Action Chief of Staff Lena Moffitt.

“By nom­i­nat­ing Ken­ta­ji Brown Jack­son, Pres­i­dent Biden is mak­ing good on a key cam­paign promise that will have long term impacts for envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, clean ener­gy, and our cli­mate. Judge Jack­son is a well-qual­i­fied jurist with a strong record, and, as the first Black woman ever appoint­ed to the court, she will bring a long-over­due per­spec­tive to the bench.”

“Pres­i­dent Biden’s nom­i­na­tion of Judge Jack­son comes just three days before oral argu­ments in the West Vir­ginia v. EPA case that threat­ens to gut the Clean Air Act. The stakes for our plan­et are high­er than they’ve ever been. Judge Jackson’s nom­i­na­tion will not shift the bal­ance of the court or take back the seat that was stolen by Sen­ate Repub­li­cans, but she can and must be a cham­pi­on for the pub­lic inter­est in the face of esca­lat­ing attacks from cor­po­rate pol­luters and their allies.”

Few Repub­li­cans are expect­ed to vote for Jack­son’s nom­i­na­tion, and it’s pos­si­ble that none will. The Repub­li­cans most like­ly to vote yea are Susan Collins and Lisa Murkows­ki. Beyond that, it’s hard to see Jack­son get­ting much support.

Collins and Murkows­ki haven’t yet react­ed to Jack­son’s nomination.

The North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute sup­ports and com­mends this nom­i­na­tion. We believe Ketan­ji Brown Jack­son will make an excel­lent Supreme Court jus­tice, and we’re excit­ed to see her join the bench along­side Jus­tices Sonia Sotomay­or and Ele­na Kagan, who were appoint­ed by Pres­i­dent Barack Obama.

Pres­i­dent Biden is plan­ning to intro­duce Jack­son as his pick in a cou­ple of hours. If you’d like to watch, that event will be broad­cast through whitehouse.gov.