History made: Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in as U.S. Supreme Court justice – New Hampshire Bulletin

Ketanji Brown Jackson turned the primary Black girl justice on the U.S. Supreme Court docket after she was sworn in Thursday by Chief Justice John Roberts and her mentor, Affiliate Justice Stephen Breyer — whose retirement was official moments earlier.

The swearing-in ceremony on the Supreme Court docket making Jackson’s place in historical past official took barely three minutes and capped a months-long course of that started when Breyer introduced in January he supposed to step down on the finish of the court docket time period.

Jackson’s husband, Patrick, held two Bibles upon which Jackson swore her oath. One was a household version and one had been donated to the court docket in 1906 by Justice John Marshall Harlan, the one justice to dissent within the notorious Plessy v. Ferguson case that upheld racial segregation.

Roberts administered the constitutional oath, whereas Breyer, for whom Jackson clerked 20 years in the past, administered the judicial oath. Roberts and Breyer had been wearing black robes whereas Jackson wore a navy gown.

“On behalf of all the members of the court docket, I’m happy to welcome Justice Jackson to the court docket and to our widespread calling,” Roberts mentioned to shut the ceremony, utilizing Jackson’s new title for the primary time.

Apart from reciting her pledges, Jackson didn’t converse in the course of the ceremony.

Roberts mentioned that Jackson’s daughters, Leila and Talia, had been current within the viewers.

At a White Home occasion in April celebrating her Senate affirmation yesterday, Jackson did deal with the historic nature of her affirmation.

“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black girl to be chosen to serve on the Supreme Court docket of america,” she mentioned. “However we’ve made it. We’ve made it, all of us.”

Rocky affirmation

President Joe Biden vowed on the marketing campaign path in 2020 that he would nominate a Black girl to serve on the nation’s highest court docket and did so by deciding on Jackson two months after Breyer introduced his retirement.

Jackson’s addition won’t change the ideological steadiness of the court docket, whose 6-3 conservative majority has riled Democrats with consequential rulings on main instances in latest weeks.

However a faction of Republican senators – led by Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Texas’ Ted Cruz – nonetheless pursued an aggressive marketing campaign in opposition to her affirmation, displaying how partisan excessive court docket alternatives have grow to be.

Over two days of questioning, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Jackson over her sentencing report in baby pornography instances, protection of terrorism suspects, and views of tradition battle points like important race idea and the definition of a lady.

Democrats and different supporters, together with police associations, mentioned the assaults had been unfair and praised Jackson as extremely certified.

Following a grueling week of affirmation hearings, the U.S. Senate confirmed Jackson in a 53-47 vote  in April. Three Republicans – Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, and Utah’s Mitt Romney – joined all Democrats in voting for her.

Florida background

Along with being the primary Black girl on the court docket, Jackson on Thursday turned the court docket’s first former public defender and its first particular person from Florida. Born in Washington, D.C., Jackson grew up in Miami.

Jackson, 51, graduated from Harvard College in 1992 and Harvard Regulation Faculty cum laude in 1996. She later clerked for a federal trial court docket in Massachusetts, a federal appeals court docket protecting northeastern states, and for Breyer. 

She labored in non-public observe earlier than becoming a member of the U.S. Sentencing Fee in 2003 and changing into a federal public defender in 2005.

She started her judicial profession as a U.S. District choose in Washington, D.C., in 2007. Biden nominated her to the D.C. Circuit Court docket of Appeals final 12 months. The Senate confirmed her for that place in a 53-44 vote.