Pres. Biden (left) stands next to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson (right) his nominee for Supreme Court. // Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
President Joseph Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday, Feb. 25, following former Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement announcement in late January. The official White House website further confirmed this, formally expressing the reasoning behind this nomination.
“The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity,” said Biden in a campaign speech leading up to the 2020 presidential election. “That person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court.”
“She’ll make history just by walking in the front door,” said Hofstra political science professor William Schaefer. “[However,] it will not change the 6-3 conservative majority on the Court.”
Jackson’s potential to fill Breyer’s seat on the Court has been questioned, but President Biden has called her one of our nation’s brightest legal minds, according to The White House.
“The new nominee will solidify nothing more than a younger, third liberal Justice,” Schaefer said.
Jackson’s background is starkly different than anyone ever nominated for the Supreme Court in its over 230-year history.
“I think it’s very important to have diversity [on the Court],” said Logan Toy Ricciardi, a senior political science major. “She has an entirely different experience in America than [the current Justices] do, [and] I’m just excited for change.”
Students have voiced sentiments about the potential future of having a Supreme Court Justice with experience as extensive as Jackson’s, while also providing pushback on the idea that this is a purely political move from the Biden administration.
“I think she’s just as qualified as anybody else,” said Kethry Milne, a sophomore political science major. “I think that some people are saying that that’s the only reason why [she was nominated] … I think that kind of takes away from her accomplishments.”
Jaylen Oneell, a junior political science major, further expressed how Jackson’s unique background and legal career make for a one-of-a-kind justice to lead the Supreme Court into a new era.
“She would be the first public defender to serve as a Supreme Court justice, which I think will be huge for the political landscape of the United States,” Oneell said.
Jackson currently works for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Some of her most influential judicial actions include prohibiting the assertion of executive privilege by then-President Donald Trump in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, ordering Trump’s former White House counsel to testify about an alleged pattern of presidential obstruction of justice and repeatedly calling for humane treatment for prisoners.
Jackson attended Harvard College followed by Harvard Law School, served as a public defender, worked in several law firms as a litigator and clerked under several judges including Breyer.
Senate confirmation hearings are set to begin on Monday, March 21, on Capitol Hill.
