President Joe Biden (D) will nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court. Jackson is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Jackson would replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced last month that he intends to retire at the end of the court’s current term. Breyer is part of the court’s “liberal” wing and an advocate of the living constitution school of jurisprudence. Jackson is also generally considered to be a “liberal” judge, so her nomination is unlikely to shift the ideological balance of the court.
Jackson worked as a law clerk for Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, for Judge Bruce M. Selya of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and for Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court. She has also worked in private practice.
In 2009, Jackson was nominated by President Barack Obama (D) to serve as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and she was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate. In 2012, Obama nominated her to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and she was later confirmed by voice vote. Biden nominated Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2021 and she was confirmed in a 53-44 vote.
The U.S. Senate is likely to hold hold hearings and a vote on confirmation some time in the coming weeks and months. The U.S. Constitution charges the Senate with providing “advice and consent” on presidential nominations to the Supreme Court.