President Joe Biden has selected his first Supreme Court nominee: Ketanji Brown Jackson from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “She is one of our nation’s brightest legal minds and will be an exceptional Justice,” Biden tweeted minutes ago.
The New York Times reports:
WASHINGTON — President Biden has selected Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court, two people familiar with his decision said, choosing a well-regarded federal appeals court judge who if confirmed would make history by becoming the first Black woman to serve as a justice.
In Judge Jackson, 51, Mr. Biden selected a liberal-leaning jurist who earned a measure of Republican support when he nominated her to the influential federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., last summer. If confirmed by the Senate, she would replace Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the senior member of the court’s three-member liberal wing, who announced last month that he would retire at the end of the current court term this summer if his successor was in place.
While her confirmation would not change the court’s ideological balance — conservatives appointed by Republicans would retain their 6-3 majority — it would achieve another first: all three justices appointed by Democratic presidents would be women.
Judge Jackson, who was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Miami, graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Justice Breyer’s alma mater. She went on to clerk for him during the 1999-2000 Supreme Court term.
Jackson served for a time as a public defender, “a rarity among Supreme Court candidates. But it was a trait that appealed to Mr. Biden, who briefly served as a public defender earlier in his career.”
Pushback is already coming from Sen. Limdsey Graham who earlier indicated he might support Biden’s pick. If she was from South Carolina, of course. Jackson is from D.C.
Gotta hand it to Lindsey Graham. He’s as good as his word, “interesting.”
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
For The Win, 4th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.