President Joe Biden nominated Federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court on Friday, making her the first black woman elected to serve on the court.
“Our government has been too long, our courts have not been like America,” Biden said of his historic choice.
“I am really honored with this nomination,” Jackson said.
“I have to start with these very brief remarks, thanking God for bringing me to this stage of my career. “My life has been immensely blessed, and I know you can only get here by faith,” she said.
Insisting on her nomination, Biden pointed to Jackson’s unique qualifications – she will be the first former public defender in the Supreme Court – and that she was previously confirmed by the Senate as a federal bench receiving Republican votes in the Senate. for this position.
“She has worked in the civil service as a federal attorney, federal attorney, and in private law practice as an experienced attorney with a prestigious law firm,” the president said in a White House speech with Jackson next to him. Vice President Kamala Harris was also there.
“She comes from a family of law enforcement officers, and her brother and uncles were in the police force,” Biden said, although he did not mention his uncle Jackson, who is serving a three-stroke cocaine prison sentence. .
But Jackson mentioned his uncle.
“You may have read that I have an uncle who was caught in the drug trade and received a life sentence. That’s right. But law enforcement also works in my family. In addition to my brother, I had two uncles who had served in the police force for decades, one of whom became a police chief in my hometown of Miami, Florida, “she said.
She praised the support she receives from her family, noting that her father was a lawyer who inspired her to apply to law school.
“I stand here today with God’s grace as a testimony to the love and support I received from my family,” she said.
Jackson’s husband, Patrick, a surgeon, and his youngest daughter, Layla, attended the announcement, sitting between First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Their eldest daughter was in college.
Friday marks two years since Biden vowed to make history by nominating the first black woman to the Supreme Court. He was sworn in during the primary debate in 2020 in South Carolina.
Liberals praised the selection, citing Jackson’s experience as a public defender. Republicans have proposed a more cautious response, with most Republican senators saying they would be open-minded to meet with her during the confirmation process.
President Joe Biden nominated Federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court on Friday, making her the first black woman elected to serve on the court.
Ketanji Brown Jackson said she was ‘truly humbled’ by the nomination
Biden shakes hands with Jackson after announcing her nomination to the Supreme Court
The announcement was attended by Jackson’s family – her husband Patrick and her daughter Leila.
The White House turned to Twitter to signal support from a wide range of figures, from Barack Obama to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is linked to Jackson by marriage.
“I would like to congratulate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on her nomination to the Supreme Court. “Judge Jackson has already inspired young black women like my daughters to achieve higher goals, and her confirmation will help them believe they can be anything,” Obama said.
“Jana and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her whole family. “Our policies may differ, but I unequivocally praise Ketanji’s intelligence, character and integrity,” Ryan said.
Biden reduced his demand to replace outgoing Judge Stephen Brier to the top three: Jackson, 51, Michelle Childs, 55, and Leondra Krueger, 45.
“President Biden was looking for a candidate with outstanding qualities, impeccable character and unwavering commitment to the rule of law,” the White House said in a statement on Friday.
“He was also looking for a candidate – like Judge Breuer – wise, pragmatic and deeply understanding the Constitution as a lasting charter of freedom. And the president was looking for someone who seeks equal justice under the law and understands the profound impact that Supreme Court decisions have on the lives of the American people. ”
Jackson’s appointment is part of Biden’s efforts to diversify the judiciary. His election is not expected to change the inclination of the Conservative court, but his focus on younger candidates ensures that his choice will have a lasting impact on his decisions.
The first step in this process was Biden to propose a formal proposal to Jackson, which he made on Thursday night.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised the court a speedy confirmation of his stay. To approve it in court, you need a simple majority. Democrats have 50 seats in the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris playing an important role.
Democrats have set a goal of final approval in early April and plan to begin hearings before the Judicial Commission by the end of March.
Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the judicial committee, was more specific, saying he wanted Biden confirmed by April 9th.
Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the Senate to the federal bench last year
How Harvard-educated Ketanji Brown went from public defender to the nation’s highest court and helped prisoners be released early for cocaine crimes
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, a federal appeals judge who is about to be nominated by President Joe Biden for the first black woman in the United States. The Supreme Court has diverse experience, including representing low-income criminal lawyers.
Jackson, 51, who was hired by Biden at the influential Washington Court of Appeals last year, has served as Supreme Court Justice Stephen Brier’s early retirement, whose retirement, announced in January, opens a vacancy in the country’s top judiciary.
As a member of the federal judiciary, Jackson has earned the respect of both liberals and conservatives and has good connections in Washington’s cohesive legal community. The Progressives chose her nomination over other leading candidates: the United States from South Carolina. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Krueger.
The Senate voted 53-44 last June to confirm Jackson as a member of the United States. District of Columbia Court of Appeal.
In her brief time at the Court of Appeals, she drafted two majority opinions, including one in favor of public sector unions challenging a decision during the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump that limits their bargaining power.
She was part of a three-judge panel that ruled in December against Trump’s proposal to prevent the White House from handing over documents to a chamber commission investigating the January investigation. On November 6, 2021, an attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. The Supreme Court Jan. 20 refused to block this decision.
Jackson was also on the three-judge panel that last August refused to block the COVID-19-related moratorium on the expulsion of the Biden administration, a decision that was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
“PRESIDENTS ARE NOT KINGS”
Jackson had previously received confirmation from the Senate in 2013 after former Democrat President Barack Obama nominated her as a federal district judge in Washington. During her eight years in office, she has dealt with a number of high-profile cases, including one in which she ruled that Trump’s former White House attorney general, Donald McGann, should be summoned to Congress to testify about potential obstruction of Trump. special prosecutorial investigation.
“The main conclusion from recorded American history over the past 250 years is that presidents are not kings,” Jackson wrote.
The decision was appealed and an agreement was reached after Biden took office. McGann testified behind closed doors.
The Honorable Sri Srinivasan (left), the Honorable Judge David Tatel, sitting in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, sitting in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, enter the courtroom. USA for the region of constant current
In other decisions, Jackson in 2019 blocked Trump’s plan to speed up the expulsion of some immigrants and in 2018 opposed his administration’s proposal to ease the dismissal of federal officials – the decisions were later overturned by the Court of Appeals, where she now serves.
Biden promised to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court during the 2020 presidential election campaign. There were only two black judges, both men: Clarence Thomas, appointed in 1991 and still serving, and Targud Marshall, who retired in 1991 and died in 1993.
During her ongoing job approval hearing in April 2021, Jackson said her experience, both personal and professional, would be “helpful” on the bench, although she rejected suggestions from Republican senators that race may influence her decisions.
“Maybe I’ve lived a different life than some of my colleagues because of who I am,” Jackson said.
Three Republican senators joined Biden’s fellow Democrats in the vote to confirm Jackson.
Jackson will become the sixth woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court, joining current members Amy Connie Barrett, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, retired Sandra Day O’Connor and the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
“PROFESSIONAL HOME”
Biden seeks to attract more women and minorities, as well as a wider range of people, to the federal judiciary, which is dominated by lawyers who were previously corporate lawyers or prosecutors.
Jackson grew up in Miami and attended Harvard University, where he once attended a drama class with future Hollywood star Matt Damon before graduating from Harvard Law School in 1996.
In 2017, Jackson described himself as a “professional tramp” at the beginning of his legal career, moving from job to job, trying to find a balance between work and personal life while raising a family. She and her husband, surgeon Patrick Jackson, have two daughters.
From 2005 to 2007, she served as a court-paid lawyer, representing criminal defense attorneys who could not afford a lawyer. Among her clients was Hee Ali Gul, an Afghan prisoner at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The United States sent him back to Afghanistan in 2014, when she was no longer involved.
Jackson worked from 2002 to 2004 for Kenneth Feinberg, a lawyer known for overseeing compensation programs, including a program for victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
She also had two separate terms on the U.S. Sentencing Committee, which chairs criminal judges, including a four-year term that began in 2010 as a vice president approved by the Senate.
In 2020, Jackson paid tribute to Breyer during a virtual conference they both attended, saying he was “opening the door to opportunities” not only with his court decisions, but also by hiring a diverse group of lawyers.
“As a descendant of slaves,” Jackson added, “let me say that, Judge (Breuer), your concern in this regard has changed the world.”
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is married to a citizen of Washington, DC. surgeon and has two children
FAMILY VALUES
Jackson has personal experience with the federal system.
Her distant uncle, Thomas Brown Jr., was serving a life sentence in Florida for a nonviolent drug crime. He wrote her a letter asking for help in his case.
He was sentenced to life in prison under the “three strikes” law. On Jackson’s recommendation, the powerful law firm of Wilmer Hale took over his case pro bono, and years later President Barack Obama commuted the sentence.
When Obama appointed her to the United States. The Sentences Commission, she helped rewrite the guidelines to reduce the recommended sentences for drug-related crimes.
Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., to two public school teachers who moved her family to the Miami area when she was a child.
According to her, her parents named her “Ketanji Oniika” to express their pride in her African heritage. Her father later became a lawyer on the Miami-Dade County School Board, and her mother became the director of a public school with advanced studies.
She and her husband, Patrick Jackson, a surgeon at Georgetown University’s Washington MedStar Hospital, have two daughters.
She is related by marriage to former House Speaker Paul Ryan. Jackson’s husband is Ryan’s son-in-law’s twin brother.
“Jana and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her whole family,” Ryan wrote on Friday. “Our policies may differ, but my praise of Ketanji’s intelligence, character and integrity is unequivocal.”
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, will not change the ideological balance of the Supreme Court if the Senate confirms it.
Jackson will become the second black judge in the current court (the other is Conservative Judge Clarence Thomas) and only the third in history.
She was on the first list of candidates for the Biden administration last year.
The Senate confirmed it in the District of Columbia. Tour in June with 53-44 votes with the support of all 50 members of the Democratic Party and Republican senators. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
However, Graham reacted negatively to Jackson’s nomination. He was a defense attorney for Michelle Childs, a federal judge in his home state of South Carolina.
A Republican senator sitting on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Jackson’s appointment “means the radical left has defeated President Biden again.” The leftist attacks on Judge Childs of South Carolina seem to have worked. ”
“I look forward to a respectful but interesting hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The Harvard-Yale train to the Supreme Court continues to run at the same speed,” he wrote on Twitter.
Supporters of the children point to her education at a state university and more diverse experiences.
But Republican Sen. John Cornin, who is also sitting on the bench, said Jackson would be treated fairly.
“No matter what, Judge Jackson will be given the dignity and respect he deserves. The American people will see a very different process from the treatment of Judge Cavanaugh and other candidates for judges in the previous administration, “the statement said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he looked forward to meeting with Jackson and “learning about her experience, legal views and judicial philosophy.” But he also appears to be skeptical, noting that he voted against her a year ago.
Announcing Jackson’s nomination, the White House said she had bipartisan support in the past: “Judge Jackson has been confirmed three times by the Senate with votes from both Republicans and Democrats.”
Jackson replaced Merrick Garland in DC. judge after leaving the judiciary to become attorney general.
Early in her legal career, she also worked as one of Breyer’s clerks. She also attended Harvard as a bachelor’s degree in law.
Jackson previously served as an assistant to the Federal Public Defender and vice president of the US House of Representatives. Sentence Commission, an independent agency that provides guidance on federal court judgments.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, center, talks with D.C. high school students who have come to observe a reenactment of a landmark Supreme court case at U.S. Court of Appeals in December
In a 1996 photo (from left), Antoinette Coakley, Nina Coleman, Lisa Fairfax and Ketanji Brown Jackson
Friday marks the two-year anniversary of Joe Biden’s promise to name a black woman to the Supreme Court
Biden also considered Leondra Kruger, 45, who sits on the California Supreme Court, (left) and Michelle Childs, 55, a federal district court judge from Columbia, South Carolina (right)
Jackson has personal experience with the federal system.
Her distant uncle, Thomas Brown Jr., was serving a life sentence in Florida for a non-violent drug offense. He wrote her a letter asking for help in his case.
He was sentenced to life in prison for “three strikes”. On Jackson’s recommendation, Wilmer Hale’s influential law firm took over his case pro bono, and President Barack Obama commuted the sentence a few years later.
When Obama appointed her to the U.S. Penal Code, she helped rewrite the guidelines to reduce the recommended penalties for drug-related crimes.
In addition, Jackson’s brother, Ketage Brown, served with the Baltimore Police Department from October 2001 to May 2008, handling undercover drug cases.
One of her uncles was a Miami police chief and another was a sex crime detective.
As trial judge, Jackson ordered former White House Counsel Don McGann to appear before Congress, stating that “Presidents are not kings.”
Presidents, she writes, “have no subjects bound by loyalty or blood whose fate they have the right to control.”
It was the failure of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to prevent his aides from testifying before lawmakers. The case was appealed and an agreement was eventually reached for McGann to testify.
Another notable case that Jackson is handling involves the online “pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which revolved around false internet rumors about prominent Democrats hiding child sex slaves in a pizza parlor in Washington.
A man from North Carolina showed up at the restaurant with a machine gun and a revolver. Jackson called it “pure luck” that no one was hurt and sentenced him to four years in prison.
Jackson also issued a national preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from expanding its powers to deport migrants who illegally entered the United States using the fast track process.