Biden to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to be first Black woman to sit on Supreme Court
By Jake Tapper and Ariane de Vogue, CNN
(CNN) -- President Joe Biden has selected Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court, according to a source who has been notified about the decision, setting in motion a historic confirmation process for the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in the nation.
Jackson, 51, currently sits on DC's federal appellate court and had been considered the front-runner for the vacancy since Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement.
She received and accepted Biden's offer in a call Thursday night, a source familiar with the decision told CNN.
Jackson clerked for Breyer and served as a federal public defender in Washington -- an experience that her backers say is fitting, given Biden's commitment to putting more public defenders on the federal bench. She was also a commissioner on the US Sentencing Commission and served on the federal district court in DC, as an appointee of President Barack Obama, before Biden elevated her to the DC Circuit last year.
Biden's pick is a chance for him to fire up a Democratic base that is less excited to vote in this year's midterm elections than it has been over the past several election cycles. It's also a welcome change of topic for the President, whose approval ratings have been sagging in recent months as the Covid-19 pandemic has dragged on and inflation has affected consumers across the nation. The selection gives Biden a chance to deliver on one of his top campaign promises, and he'll hope that the Black voters who were crucial to his election win will see this as a return on their investment.
Though it is historic, the choice of Jackson will not change the ideological makeup of the court. The court currently has six conservative justices and three liberal justices -- and the retiring Breyer comes from the liberal camp. The court is already poised to continue its turn toward the right with high-profile cases and rulings expected from the court in the coming months on abortion, gun control and religious liberty issues.
Eyes will now turn to the Senate, where Biden's Democratic Party holds the thinnest possible majority. The President will hope that Jackson can garner bipartisan support, but Democrats will need all their members in Washington to ensure her confirmation. Unlike for most major pieces of legislation, Democrats do not need Republican help to confirm a Supreme Court justice and can do it with their 50 votes and Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a deadlock. When Jackson was confirmed to the appellate bench, she had the support of three Republican senators.
As a judge in DC -- where some of the most politically charged cases are filed -- Jackson's issued notable rulings touching on Congress' ability to investigate the White House. As a district court judge, she wrote a 2019 opinion siding with House lawmakers who sought the testimony of then-White House Counsel Don McGahn. Last year, she was on the unanimous circuit panel that ordered disclosure of certain Trump White House documents to the House January 6 committee.
Following Breyer's retirement announcement in late January, Biden began reviewing background materials, such as legal records and writings, about his potential picks, which included Jackson, California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger and South Carolina US District Judge J. Michelle Childs.
Biden first committed to nominating a Black female US Supreme Court justice when he was running for president in 2020. On a debate stage in South Carolina, Biden argued that his push to make "sure there's a Black woman on the Supreme Court" was rooted in an effort to "get everyone represented."
This story is breaking and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
