The 51-year-old judge, with “extraordinary qualifications” according to Biden, took the floor, under the gaze of another woman who embodies the American dream for minorities: Vice President Kamala Harris, of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother.
“I only hope that my life, my career, my love of country and the Constitution, and my commitment to the rule of law and the sacred principles on which this nation was built will be an inspiration to future generations of Americans,” he said. Jackson.
Given the strong political polarization in the United States, Jackson’s confirmation hearing in the Senate is likely to be stormy. In fact, some congressmen have already reacted negatively.
“Judge Jackson was the preferred option of the dark financial interests of the extreme left,” criticized the leader of the Republican caucus in the Senate, Mitch McConnell.
Biden: Jackson “is one of the brightest legal minds in our nation”
“She is one of the brightest legal minds in our nation and she will be an exceptional judge,” Biden said at the White House, insisting that it was a “historic” moment.
“It is already a source of inspiration for black women, like my daughters, allowing them to aim higher,” applauded former President Barack Obama. Ketanji Brown Jackson was one of three finalists chosen according to strict criteria precisely to avoid criticism during the confirmation phase on Capitol Hill.
Biden himself was involved in the selection, interviewing the magistrates in the final stretch of the process. The appointment to the Supreme Court, the first made by Biden, will not change the balance of power in the nine-magistrate court with a conservative majority that oversees the constitutionality of laws and decides on important social issues in the United States.
Trump appointed three judges
Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, had the opportunity to appoint three justices to the Supreme Court and anchored the institution in conservatism, possibly for decades to come.
Jackson is a judge on the Washington Court of Appeals, which is considered a springboard for Supreme Court hopefuls. She got the job with the backing of three Republican senators.
He will replace progressive Justice Stephen Breyer, who will retire at the end of June. The main US judicial body will then be made up of six conservatives (including one woman) and three progressives, all of them women.
He grew up in Florida and studied at Harvard
Ketanji Brown Jackson, a mother of two daughters, grew up in Florida and is married to a surgeon. She graduated from the prestigious Harvard University Law School.
But paradoxically, this harms him, given that the Republicans consider that there are too many judges on the court licensed by private universities such as Harvard and Yale.
In 232 years of existence, the United States Supreme Court has only had two black justices, one of whom, Clarence Thomas, was appointed by George Bush Sr. and still serves.
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