Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmed As The First Black Woman To Sit On US Supreme Court

The United States Senate has confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the US Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman in the nation’s history to serve on its highest court.

The Senate confirmed Jackson’s historic nomination in a 53-47 vote on Thursday afternoon.

Beyond breaking barriers as the first Black woman on the bench, 51-year-old Jackson also is now only the third Black American ever to serve as a Supreme Court justice.

Jackson’s confirmation process highlighted deep partisan divisions in the US, with Republicans seeking to paint the longtime jurist and US appeals court judge as a “radical”, while Democrats stood staunchly behind her.

While most Republicans on Thursday voted against her joining the top court, three GOP senators – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Utah’s Mitt Romney – voted in favour on Thursday, effectively sealing her nomination in the evenly-divided chamber.

Ideologically liberal, Jackson will be joining a court that is dominated 6-3 by conservatives. She will be replacing 83-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced his retirement in January.

While justices on the Supreme Court are meant to be apolitical, confirmation hearings have become politically fraught affairs.

Republicans spent the hearings interrogating Jackson’s sentencing record on the federal bench, including the sentences she handed down in child pornography cases, which they argued were too light. They also sought to paint her as radically left-wing in her judicial opinions.

Jackson attended Harvard University, served as a public defender, worked at a private law firm and was appointed as a member of the US Sentencing Commission in addition to her nine years on the federal bench.

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