First Black Woman Set to Be Nominated to the US Supreme Court

History will be created in the United States this afternoon when President Joe Biden will formally nominate the first black woman to the United States Supreme Court.

Biden’s nominee, 51-year-old Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, currently serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

If confirmed, she will be the first African American woman, and only the third African American, to hold a seat on the US High Court in its more than 200 year old history.

Ricardo Brooks has more on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Ketanji Brown Jackson will today stand beside the US President as the first African American woman to be nominated to the pinnacle of the US judicial system.

She was nominated to the DC Circuit by Biden just about a year ago, after serving seven years on the District Court in Washington D.C., a post to which she was nominated by President Barack Obama.

Three Republican Senators joined all the Democrats in voting to confirm her to the DC Circuit.

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Judge Brown Jackson clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer on the United States Supreme Court.

If confirmed, Judge Jackson will take the seat of her former boss, who has indicated he intends to retire upon her confirmation.

Raised in Miami, Judge Brown Jackson is only one of a few nominees to the US Supreme Court with experience as a public defender.

This experience is thought to be important to President Biden, who has promised to diversify the US federal Court system.

In a March 2017 speech, Judge Brown Jackson talked about her background as the child of public school teachers.

Among Judge Brown Jackson’s most notable rulings, is a 119 page opinion in which she rejected former President Donald Trump’s claims that federal courts lacked the power to review disputes between the executive branch and the Congress.

In that ruling, Judge Brown Jackson noted that the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of American history is that Presidents are not Kings.

Biden will host a nomination ceremony with the Judge this afternoon at 2:00.