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The US Senate has confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, shattering a historic barrier by securing her place as the first black female justice and giving President Joe Biden a bipartisan endorsement for his effort to diversify the high court.
Cheers rang out in the Senate chamber asJackson, a 51-year-old appeals court judge with nine years' experience on the federal bench, was confirmed 53-47, mostly along party lines but with three Republican votes. Presiding and emotionally announcing the vote was Vice President Kamala Harris, also the first black woman to reach her high office.
"This is a wonderful day, a joyous day, an inspiring day - for the Senate, for the Supreme Court and for the United States of America," exulted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The Senate's upper galleries were almost full for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago, and about a dozen House members, part of the Congressional black caucus, stood at the back of the chamber.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, speak to reporters outside the Senate office. Photo / AP
"We're making history," declared Representative Marilyn Strickland of Washington state.
Harris, who paused with emotion as she read the vote, said as she left the Capitol that she was "overjoyed, deeply moved".
Jackson will take her seat when Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer, solidifying the liberal wing of the 6-3 conservative-dominated court. She joined Biden at the White House to watch the vote, embracing as it came in.
During the four days of Senate hearings last month, Jackson spoke of her parents' struggles through racial segregation and said her "path was clearer" than theirs as a black American after the enactment of civil rights laws. She attended Harvard University, served as a public defender, worked at a private law firm and was appointed as a member of the US Sentencing Commission.
The Supreme Court's newest member, Ketanji Brown Jackson, has much in common with her future colleagues. Photo / AP
She told senators she would apply the law "without fear or favour" and pushed back on Republican attempts to portray her as too lenient on criminals she had sentenced.
Jackson will be just the third black justice, after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and the sixth woman. She will join three other women - Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett – meaning that four of the nine justices will be women for the first time in history.
Her eventual elevation to the court will be a respite for Democrats who fought three bruising battles over former President Donald Trump's nominees and watched Republicans cement a conservative majority in the final days of Trump's term with Barrett's confirmation. While Jackson won't change the balance, she will secure a legacy on the court for Biden and fulfil his 2020 campaign pledge to nominate the first black female justice.
"This is a tremendously historic day in the White House and in the country," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki after the vote. "And this is a fulfilment of a promise the president made to the country."
Democrats stand and applaud after the Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court at the US Capitol. Photo / AP
Despite the efforts to tarnish her record, Jackson eventually won three GOP votes. The final tally was far from the overwhelming bipartisan confirmations for Breyer and other justices in decades past, but it was still a significant bipartisan accomplishment for Biden in the 50-50 split Senate after GOP senators aggressively worked to paint Jackson as too liberal and soft on crime.
Statements from Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah all said the same thing - they might not always agree with Jackson, but they found her to be enormously well qualified for the job. Collins and Murkowski both decried increasingly partisan confirmation fights, which only worsened during the battles over Trump's three picks. Collins said the process was "broken" and Murkowski called it "corrosive" and "more detached from reality by the year".
Biden, a veteran of a more bipartisan Senate, said from the day of Breyer's retirement announcement in January that he wanted support from both parties for his history-making nominee, and he invited Republicans to the White House as he made his decision. It was an attempted reset from Trump's presidency, when Democrats vociferously opposed the three nominees, and from the end of President Barack Obama's, when Republicans blocked nominee Merrick Garland from getting a vote.
Once sworn in, Jackson will be the second-youngest member of the court after Barrett, 50. She will join a court on which no one is yet 75, the first time that has happened in nearly 30 years.
President Joe Biden and Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson watch as the senate votes on her confirmation at the White House. Photo / AP
Jackson's first term will be marked by cases involving race, both in college admissions and voting rights. She has pledged to sit out the court's consideration of Harvard's admissions program since she is a member of its board of overseers. But the court could split off a second case involving a challenge to the University of North Carolina's admissions process, which might allow her to weigh in on the issue.
