Ketanji Brown Jackson has been confirmed to the United States Supreme Court!

With Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris pre­sid­ing, Judge Ketan­ji Brown Jack­son today became the first Black woman to ever be con­firmed as a Jus­tice of the Unit­ed States Supreme Court. The final vote in favor of her con­fir­ma­tion was 53–47, with three Repub­li­can sen­a­tors join­ing all Democ­rats and inde­pen­dents in vot­ing yea.

The roll call from the Pacif­ic North­west was as follows:

Vot­ing Yea: Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Pat­ty Mur­ray and Maria Cantwell (WA), Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (OR), Jon Tester (MT); Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Lisa Murkows­ki (AK)

Vot­ing Nay: Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Mike Crapo and Jim Risch (ID), Dan Sul­li­van (AK), Steve Daines (MT)

Sen­a­tors Lisa Collins, Mitt Rom­ney, and Lisa Murkows­ki had all announced in recent days that they would sup­port Jack­son’s con­fir­ma­tion, ensur­ing that Vice Pres­i­dent Har­ris’ tiebreak­ing vote would not be need­ed for a suc­cess­ful outcome.

Jack­son will suc­ceed Jus­tice Stephen Brey­er, who was nom­i­nat­ed to the Court by Pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton and con­firmed on July 29th, 1994. Brey­er announced his retire­ment sev­er­al weeks ago in an appear­ance at the White House with Pres­i­dent Joe Biden. Biden sub­se­quent­ly ful­filled his pledge to nom­i­nate a Black woman as his first pick for the Unit­ed States Supreme Court. Jack­son just so hap­pens to be one of Brey­er’s for­mer clerks, and Brey­er has made it clear he thinks high­ly of her.

Jack­son is cur­rent­ly serv­ing on the Unit­ed States Court of Appeals for the Dis­trict of Colum­bia Cir­cuit. Before that, she was a dis­trict court judge. She is a Har­vard alum and worked in pri­vate prac­tice and as a pub­lic defend­er before join­ing the Unit­ed States Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion — a posi­tion to which she was con­firmed unanimously.

In 2012, Jack­son was nom­i­nat­ed for the fed­er­al bench by Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma. Future House Speak­er Paul Ryan, who had just fin­ished serv­ing as Mitt Rom­ney’s unsuc­cess­ful run­ning mate, intro­duced Jack­son at her con­fir­ma­tion hear­ing, remark­ing: “Our pol­i­tics may dif­fer, but my praise for Ketan­ji’s intel­lect, for her char­ac­ter, for her integri­ty, it is unequivocal.”

Jack­son is the most accom­plished and qual­i­fied Supreme Court nom­i­nee in many, many years, and arguably one of the most qual­i­fied ever. Even Repub­li­cans who oppose her nom­i­na­tion have admit­ted that she is supreme­ly well qual­i­fied. Unlike Amy Coney Bar­rett, Trump’s last nom­i­nee for the Court, Ken­tan­ji Brown Jack­son has been a fed­er­al judge at mul­ti­ple lev­els, includ­ing the appel­late level.

The Amer­i­can Bar Asso­ci­a­tion gave Jack­son its top rat­ing, with a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the ABA, D. Jean Veta, stat­ing to the Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee: “She pos­sess­es all of the oth­er impor­tant attrib­ut­es of a great jurist. She is prac­ti­cal and intu­itive and curi­ous and cour­te­ous and always impec­ca­bly well prepared.”

Jack­son is also one of the most pop­u­lar Supreme Court nom­i­nees ever. A poll con­duct­ed by Gallup last month found that 58% of respon­dents favored Jack­son’s con­fir­ma­tion, 30% opposed it, and 12% had no opin­ion. Those are extreme­ly robust num­bers for a Supreme Court nom­i­nee in high­ly polar­ized times.

Jack­son will take office and replace Brey­er at the end of the cur­rent Supreme Court term, which is when Brey­er plans to step down.

The White House says tomor­row, the Senate’s his­toric, bipar­ti­san con­fir­ma­tion of Judge Jackson’s nom­i­na­tion to be an Asso­ciate Jus­tice of the Supreme Court. This is sched­uled for 9:15 AM Pacif­ic Time on the South Lawn.

“Judge Jack­son is one of the most excep­tion­al Supreme Court nom­i­nees I have ever met, and I am so excit­ed that she’s on her way to the Supreme Court. It is incred­i­bly well deserved, and incred­i­bly good news for our coun­try,” said Wash­ing­ton’s senior U.S. Sen­a­tor, Pat­ty Mur­ray. “The bot­tom line for me is always — can I tell my con­stituents back home in Wash­ing­ton state that if they ever have a case before this judge, this is some­one who will lis­ten, some­one who will under­stand, some­one who will make a thought­ful, fair deci­sion for them based on the laws of our nation? And the answer with Judge Jack­son is a resound­ing yes.”