On February 25, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the 116 Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court after Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement. On April 7, 2022, Jackson was confirmed by the Senate to become the first black woman on the Supreme Court.

Judge Jackson was confirmed on a 53-47 vote, with three republicans crossing their party line to vote for her. Now that she has been confirmed, Jackson is a justice in waiting until Breyer officially leaves his seat and retires this summer during the court’s summer recess. She will not be able to take the bench until the court returns in October from summer break.

“I definitely think it can make an impact on young women, and she’ll definitely add values that could add or potentially subtract good or bad things for the Supreme Court.” junior Lexi Shellhammer said.

Jackson graduated from Harvard law school and has many credentials and experience for this job. She was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2021 and was a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia when former President Obama nominated her in 2012. She also worked as the Vice Chair of the U.S. Sentencing commission and was a public defender. Jackson is actually the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court. Jackson also worked as a Supreme Court clerk under the mentorship of Justice Breyer, whom she is now replacing. 

Jackson delivered a speech on Friday, April 8, the day after her confirmation to give thanks for the support she has received. She expressed how honored she is to make history and said, “It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. But we’ve made it.  We’ve made it, all of us. All of us. And – and our children are telling me that they see now, more than ever, that, here in America, anything is possible.”

“She has definitely broken the barrier for women in the Supreme Court again, especially since she is a woman of color so I think that’s really great representation that we needed in higher positions like the Supreme Court.” Shellhammer said.