WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday heralded the historic confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is about to become the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court, as a moment of “real change in American history.”
“This is going to let so much sun shine on so many young women,” the president said during a ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn. “It’s a powerful thing when people can see themselves in others.”
Biden, who watched with Jackson in the Roosevelt Room on Thursday as the Senate voted 53 to 47 to confirm her, praised the judge as being “fair and impartial” while touting his fulfillment of a campaign promise to appoint a Black woman to the high court if given the chance.
“When I decided to run, this was one of the first decisions I made,” he recalled. “I could see it as a day of hope, a day of promise, a day of progress.”
Jackson, 51, called her appointment “the greatest honor of my life,” making her first public comments since her contentious confirmation hearings, where she sat stoically through attacks by Republican lawmakers. Biden decried the GOP grilling as “verbal abuse” that entailed the “most vile, baseless assertions and accusations.”
“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,” Jackson said. “But we’ve made it — all of us.”
“In my family,” she added, “it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who is a trailblazer in her own position and presided over the final Senate vote Thursday, said Jackson’s appointment will “inspire a generation of leaders” who will see for the first time “four women sitting on that court at the same time.”
For Biden, Jackson’s lifetime appointment is likely to amount to one of the more consequential achievements of his presidency — even though, in the near term, it will not affect the ideological split on the Supreme Court, which is dominated by its six conservative justices.
She’ll replace Justice Stephen G. Breyer, 83, one of the court’s three liberals, once the current term ends in June.
Jackson shares the Ivy League background of other justices but will become the first former federal public defender to join the high court. The Harvard-educated judge, who once clerked for her predecessor, will remain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit until Breyer steps down.
Politically, Jackson’s confirmation amounts to a major win during a difficult stretch for Biden. His approval rating is stuck in the low 40s despite record low unemployment and his unifying of NATO allies in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Jackson’s confirmation, which garnered support from Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah, marked a rare, high-profile, bipartisan achievement for Biden and Democrats in an era of bitter political battles.
With midterm elections looming, voting rights and police reform legislation given up for dead and the president’s domestic agenda still in limbo, this accomplishment may also be Biden’s best shot at convincing Black voters who helped him win his party’s nomination and the presidency that he has delivered for them.
