As of April 7, 2022, with a vote of 53-47 and the support of all 50 Democratic Senators, along with three Republicans the Supreme Court will swear in Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first African American woman to serve as a justice of the United States Supreme Court. The three Republicans were Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. President Joe Biden nominated Judge Jackson to replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who is set to be retired, and she won’t take the required judicial oath and formally join the Supreme Court until Justice Breyer is officially retired.
Although there was some support from the Republicans, members from the Senate Judiciary Committee interrogated Jackson’s work during her time as a federal public defender. As Jackson becomes the first public defender to serve justice, the court’s aslant conservative majority will remain in order. Republicans’ attempts to disparage her were disconnected from reality and they have also done damage in the general area of the criminal justice reform because of the dismissing of all the views of judicial discretion. To add, Ted Cruz insinuated that supporting Jackson was like calling for abolishing the police. But Jackson was raised by two teachers who then became a high school principal and a lawyer. Her previous work involved being a clerk for Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S District Court of Massachusetts and Judge Bruce M. Selya of the U.S Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
In 2012, Jackson was nominated by former president Barack Obama to serve on the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia. With additional experience, Jackson worked in the criminal justice field as an Assistant Federal Public Defender of the Office of Federal Public Defender of Columbia and served on the U.S Sentencing Commission. Jackson is an exceedingly qualified jurist who has gained the respect of liberal and conservative associates. She will not take the bench until the court’s summer break is over and back in October, but she will be ready for major cases including affirmative action and voting rights. History once again is being made, and, for the first time, there will be four women on the court and there will also be two black female justices, as well as a Latina justice.