Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court

Breyer announced his retirement last month after 28 years on the Supreme Court, effective when the current term ends this summer. That paved the way for Biden to fulfill his 2020 campaign promise of nominating a black woman as a Supreme Court justice.

BREYER RETIREMENT ALLOWS BIDEN TO NOMINATE FIRST BLACK FEMALE JUSTICE

“For too long, our government, our courts haven’t looked like America, and I believe it is time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications,” Biden said while opening his nationally televised introduction of Jackson.

Jackson, 51, was known to be on a short list of contenders the White House considered for the role and exhibits a unique background, having been a federal trial court judge for eight years without experience as a prosecutor or major corporate lawyer. Other contenders — such as South Carolina judge Michelle Childs, who was believed to have had support from that state’s two Republican senators — were thought to have more bipartisan appeal.

“I am truly humbled by the extraordinary honor of this nomination, and I am especially grateful for the care that you have taken in discharging your constitutional duty in service of our democracy with all that is going on in the world today,” Jackson said at a press conference with Biden Friday afternoon.

Russell Wheeler, a governance studies expert with the Brookings Institution, told the Washington Examiner Jackson’s selection was especially poignant because “finally you’re going to have two people on the court that have imposed a criminal sentence,” also referring to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s time as a district court judge.

“Now with the Supreme Court selection, you see what I suspect may be an effort on the part of the White House to placate the progressives in the judiciary as [Biden] had little interest in their demands of Supreme Court revision, whether it be a change in the number of justices or term limits,” Wheeler said.

Before she became a judge, Jackson worked as a public defender representing indigent criminal defendants and served as vice chairwoman on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. She studied government at Harvard University, graduating in 1992, and is an alumna of Harvard Law School.

Last June, the Biden administration selected Jackson to succeed Attorney General Merrick Garland as a judge before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; she recently delivered her first opinion on the bench in the AFL-CIO v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, siding with federal labor unions. After her nomination, she was confirmed by a vote of 53 to 44.

Jackson’s name has circulated among Democratic leaders for several years. When Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, then-President Barack Obama put Jackson on his short list of replacements. Obama ultimately nominated Garland, a move that then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked from proceeding until after the 2016 election. Donald Trump’s surprise White House win that year led to the nomination and Senate confirmation of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Biden spent months before Breyer’s retirement announcement reviewing biographies of Supreme Court candidates. He aims to confirm Jackson at a similar pace to consideration of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed 35 days after her nomination by Trump in 2020.

Alex Deise, a policy manager at FreedomWorks, told the Washington Examiner he thinks “Republicans should put on a fair and impartial hearing,” referring to the “not fair” hearings that took place for both Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Barrett under the Trump administration.

Deise added that Republicans should still intently question Jackson on whether she “embraces originalism” and gain insight into where she believes the Supreme Court derives its power from. “Just because judicial nominees on these types of questions have a long history of being evasive, I do not think that excuses a senator’s duty of advice and consent and their constitutional role with advice and consent in this process,” Deise added.

The Biden administration has tapped former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones to oversee operations for introducing his selection to senators and coordinating meetings to prepare her for confirmation to the highest court.

Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also released a statement on Friday saying Jackson’s “achievements are well known” to the committee, as “we approved her to the D.C. Circuit less than a year ago with bipartisan support. We will begin immediately to move forward on her nomination with the careful, fair, and professional approach she and America are entitled to.”

Brown’s replacement of Breyer does not change the Supreme Court’s ideological composition. Conservatives dominate with a 6-3 majority, though Chief Justice John Roberts has, at times, sided with the liberal bloc that had been comprised of Breyer and Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

“Breyer really is, you know, seen as a deal-maker on that side, someone who can come to the middle, and I don’t think KBJ is going to be that person,” Deise said. “So, I think it’s very likely that the court actually will move to the right if she’s confirmed. But obviously, we’ll see.”

Biden’s commitment to nominate the first black woman to the highest court is on par with his track record of nominating more judicial appointees of that demographic than past presidents, as 26% of Biden’s judicial appointees so far are black women.

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The president is also setting records with his pace of judicial confirmations, with 13 appeals court and 32 district court judges confirmed in the Senate as of Feb. 1.