Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson as first black woman on US Supreme Court
- The vote is a victory for President Joe Biden, who is making his first appointment to a bench with an increasingly assertive 6-3 conservative majority
- Jackson will take retiring Justice Stephen Breyer’s place on the liberal bloc of the top court
Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the US Senate on Thursday as the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court in a milestone for the United States and a victory for President Joe Biden, who made good on a campaign promise as he seeks to infuse the federal judiciary with a broader range of backgrounds.
The vote to confirm the 51-year-old federal appellate judge to a lifetime job on the nation’s top judicial body was 53-47, with three Republicans – Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney – joining Biden’s fellow Democrats.
A simple majority was needed, as Jackson overcame Republican opposition in a Supreme Court confirmation process that remains fiercely partisan.
Jackson will take the 83-year-old Stephen Breyer’s place on the liberal bloc of a court with an increasingly assertive 6-3 conservative majority. Breyer is due to serve until the court’s current term ends – usually in late June – and Jackson would be formally sworn in after that. Jackson served early in her career as a Supreme Court clerk for Breyer.
Democrat Raphael Warnock, one of the Senate’s three black members, said in debate before the vote: “I’m the father of a young black girl. I know how much it means for Judge Jackson to have navigated the double jeopardy of racism and sexism to now stand in the glory of this moment …