WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate on Monday voted 53-44 to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the D.C. Circuit.
The 1996 Harvard Law graduate, former public defender and former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer has served as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia since she was appointed by Barack Obama in 2013. She will now take the place of Merrick Garland, who served on the bench for 24 years before taking on the role of Biden’s attorney general earlier this year.
Jackson is viewed as a top choice for a Supreme Court justice, as Biden pledged to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court and the influential federal appeals court is often a launchpad for the high court. In 2016, Jackson was among the candidates that Obama considered to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat.
Many Democrats are hoping that Breyer, 82, will retire, so that his seat might be filled by a younger, more progressive justice, but Breyer has not indicated his intentions.
At only 50 years old, Jackson, if appointed soon, could be on the high court for decades.
Jackson’s nomination for the D.C. Circuit seat cleared a procedural hurdle 52-46 last week, with three Republican senators voting alongside Democrats: Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
During her questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee, several Republicans voted against Jackson — in part for her insistence that she doesn’t have a constitutional interpretation.
She also maintained her racial background doesn’t affect her rulings.
“Race would be the kind of thing that would be inappropriate to inject in my evaluation of a case,” Jackson said. “I’m doing a certain thing when I get my cases. I’m looking at the arguments, the facts and the law. I’m methodically and intentionally setting aside personal views, any other inappropriate considerations.”
As former President Donald Trump appointed more than 200 conservative judges, including three Supreme Court justices, during his tenure, Democrats have moved quickly to confirm Biden’s judicial nominees. The slate of nominations has been praised by progressives for being demographically and professionally diverse, with many women, minorities and public defenders.
Jackson will be one of only five Black women currently serving on a federal appeals court.
“Women, especially women of color, have long been underrepresented on the federal bench,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on the Senate floor, after citing a headline which said that Biden has nominated as many minority women to be judges in four months as Trump confirmed in four years. "Along with President Biden, the Senate Democratic majority is working quickly to close the gap.”
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