First change: 03/26/2022 – 03:11
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has been nominated by President Joe Biden to replace Democratic Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. She was interviewed by the Senate this week. If her candidacy is accepted, this progressive judge will become the first African American woman to serve on the country’s highest judiciary.
“For too long our government and our courts haven’t looked like America,” Biden said when introducing his candidate, “I think it’s about time we had a court that reflects the talent and greatness of our nation,” he added.
Ketanji Brown Jackson is a 51-year-old judge who lives in Washington with her husband and two daughters. Jackson grew up in a middle-class family in Miami. Even as a child, she was enthusiastic about law through her father, who was also a lawyer. In 1996, he graduated from Harvard’s elite law school, like 4 of the court’s current judges.
Ketanji Brown Jackson began his career as an assistant to three judges, including Stephen Breyer of the United States Supreme Court, whom he has now replaced. She has worked at large private law firms on a number of occasions and in 2017 explained how difficult it is to be a mother and work for large law firms, describing how the schedule is “constantly in conflict with the needs of your children and family.”
One of her important experiences was her work as a federal defense attorney from 2005 to 2007. Unlike all other judges, she is the only one who has this kind of professional experience, which gives her an insight into the justice system that other judges do not have have .
“I remember thinking very clearly, feeling like I didn’t have enough insight into what’s really going on in criminal cases, I wanted to understand the system,” Jackson said when asked by senators why she decided to become a public defender. She also explained that this experience allowed her to recognize that defendants generally have very little knowledge of the law, which led her to always carefully explain her decisions to them.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies of her nomination to convert during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill March 22, 2022 in Washington, United States. © Mandel Ngan/Pool via REUTERS
In 2013, then-President Barack Obama appointed Ketanji Onyika Jackson to the United States District Court in Columbia, stating, “Ms. Jackson has established herself as a highly qualified attorney and dedicated public servant.” I am grateful for his willingness to serve and trust that he will be an unwavering voice for justice and fairness on the sentencing committee.”
In 2019, Jackson commented on a dispute between House Democrats and former President Donald Trump’s administration when lawmakers attempted to subpoena former White House Counsel Don McGahn. At the time, Trump asserted that his close advisers were protected from testifying in Congress, which the judge denied, affirming that presidents are not “kings.”
A few days after her arrival at the White House, Joe Biden summoned her to the federal appeals court in Washington, which is considered the second highest court after the Supreme Court. It was passed with the support of all Democrats and three Republicans.
A week of controversial questions
Joe Biden has promised to become the first US President to appoint an African-American woman to the post of Supreme Court Justice. For this to take effect, the Senate must approve Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination through a vote that will take place in April. Jackson has a good chance of passing as the Senate is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will have the final say in a tie.
The Supreme Court has historically been heavily controlled by white males, leading President Biden to want more diversity. In the nearly 200 years of its existence, the court has had 120 judges, 115 male and 117 white.
Jackson’s week of interviews in the Senate once again reflected the split between the Republican and Democratic sides, but also the focus of the debate on the gender and race of the candidate.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz, for example, asked him if he considered babies racist or if he could provide a definition of womanhood, to which Jackson refused.
US Senator Ted Cruz holds the book How to be Anti-Racist while questioning Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Capitol Hill March 22, 2022 in Washington, United States. © REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Another Republican senator asked her, “Justice Jackson, what role does race play in the kind of judge you were and will be?” To which she replied, “I don’t think race matters in the kind of judge plays who I was and would be like you asked that question.”
The Supreme Court now consists of 3 Democratic and 6 Republican judges. Jackson’s nomination would not change that distribution, but it would be highly symbolic and would renew its members as the second-youngest judge with key issues like abortion rights to be decided in the coming months.
with local media