Judge Jackson & Why Representation Matters ✊🏾

It’s official: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the next Supreme Court justice and the first Black female to take on the role.

• Ketanji Brown Jackson has made history and will be the new Supreme Justice, following a vote in the Senate last Thursday. The confirmation result was 53:47.
• The confirmation of Jackson in the position was never really in doubt. She even received some bi-partisan support. Jackson will be the first Black female justice in the history of the supreme court.
• Following Justice Stephen Breyer’s announcement of his retirement earlier this year, President Biden had always made it clear that he would nominate a Black woman to serve on the court. The nomination has been praised, especially by women of color; particularly after she sustained 4 days of contentious Senate hearings in which Republicans tried to depict her as being “soft on crime”.
• However, Jackson will also be a member of the court’s increasingly confined liberal wing, which in recent years has faced a number of losing cases. The nomination is of symbolic importance.
• The confirmation of Jackson does not sway the ideological balance of the court, as she is replacing a judge considered as left-leaning. The court will therefore maintain a 6-3 conservative majority.