President Joe Biden will nominate federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his pick for the Supreme Court.
“I’m proud to announce that I am nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court,” Biden tweeted on Friday morning. “Currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, she is one of our nation’s brightest legal minds and will be an exceptional Justice.”
Jackson, a Harvard graduate, currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington circuit. During her time at Harvard, she led protests against a student who draped a Confederate flag from his dorm window and once served as the Harvard Law Review editor. She has clerked for three federal judges in the past, including Justice Breyer from 1999-2000.
If nominated, Jackson would be coming directly from the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the second-most-important court in the country after the Supreme Court.
Last month, pledged to nominate the nation’s first Black female Supreme Court Justice.
“The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court,” Biden said while honoring retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at the White House on Thursday. “It’s long overdue in my view. I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment.”
Black women make up only 3% of the federal judiciary, according to data from the Federal Judicial Center.
Jackson was the frontrunner at the time. Leondra Kruger and J Michelle Childs were also being considered for the position.
