WASHINGTON —
US President Joe Biden has nominated federal appeals judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first black woman selected to serve on a court that once declared her race unworthy of citizenship and backed the segregation.
Introducing Jackson, Biden said she has proven to be “a consensus builder” who has “a pragmatic understanding that the law must work for the American people.” “She strives to be fair, to do well, to achieve justice,” said the president.
Biden thus fulfills a campaign promise to make the historic appointment and further diversify a court that was made up almost exclusively of white men for almost two centuries. He chose a lawyer who would be the first former female public defender on the highest court, but also with the elite track record of other chief justices.
Jackson would be the second black judge on the current court — conservative Clarence Thomas is the other — and just the third in history.
Standing next to Biden at the White House, Jackson spoke of the historic nature of his nomination, noting that he shares a birthday with Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman confirmed as a federal judge.
“If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed as the next Supreme Court Justice of the United States, I can only hope that my life and career, my love for this country and the Constitution, and my dedication to defending the empire of May the law and sacred principles on which this great nation was founded inspire future generations of Americans,” he said.
Jackson would also be only the sixth woman to serve on the court, and her confirmation would mean that for the first time four women are together on the nine-judge bench.
The current court has three women, one of whom is the first Hispanic, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
Jackson would join a liberal minority on a conservative-dominated court that is considering rolling back abortion rights and will consider ending the use of race in college tuition and restricting voting rights efforts to increase minority representation.
Biden will fill the vacancy left by Judge Stephen Breyer, 83, who will retire in the middle of this year
Jackson, 51, once worked as a paralegal for Breyer early in her legal career. She studied law at Harvard and served on the Sentencing Commission, the federal agency that develops sentencing guidelines in the country, before becoming a federal judge in 2013.