Since Justice Stephen G. Breyer announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson assumed the front-runner’s position to replace him. On Friday morning President Joe Biden named her his nominee, and if confirmed she will become the first Black woman on the court.
Jackson, 51, is not the head-and-shoulders most credentialed of the three leading candidates that were under consideration — Leondra Kruger, a California Supreme Court justice, has an equally impressive resume, and at age 45, she would have the longest potential term on the court. Nor does Jackson have the political muscle of the other stellar candidate, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, 55, who had support from South Carolina Rep. James E. Clyburn and Sen. Lindsey Graham.
But she has the strongest claim to confirmability on terms the Biden administration can claim as bipartisan. She was confirmed in June to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the second-most important court in the country, with the support of three Republican senators. It would be a feat of almost impossible political gymnastics for those three — Graham, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — to turn against her so soon. On Friday, former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted, “Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal.”
