Ketanji Brown Jackson Becomes First Black Woman to Serve as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn in as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becom­ing the first Black woman to serve as a jus­tice in the 232-year his­to­ry of the Court. 

In an his­toric cer­e­mo­ny at the Supreme Court short­ly after the retire­ment of Justice Stephen Breyer took effect at noon on June 30, 2022, Chief Justice John Roberts admin­is­tered the Constitutional Oath to Justice Jackson (pic­tured). Justice Breyer, for whom Justice Jackson served as a law clerk dur­ing the Court’s 1999 – 2000 term, then admin­is­tered the Judicial Oath.

Jackson, the 116^th jus­tice of the Court, was ele­vat­ed to the Court by President Joe Biden from her posi­tion as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She is the first for­mer fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er to serve on the Court and the first jus­tice since Thurgood Marshall’s appoint­ment in 1967 to have any sig­nif­i­cant expe­ri­ence rep­re­sent­ing indi­gent defen­dants in criminal cases.

In nom­i­nat­ing Jackson, President Biden said, ​“For too long, our gov­ern­ment, our courts haven’t looked like America. … I believe it’s time that we have a court that reflects the full tal­ents and great­ness of our nation with a nom­i­nee of extra­or­di­nary qual­i­fi­ca­tions and that we inspire all young peo­ple to believe that they can one day serve their coun­try at the high­est lev­el.” Jackson’s ascen­sion to the Court marks the first time in its his­to­ry that a major­i­ty of the jus­tices are not White men.

“With a full heart, I accept the solemn respon­si­bil­i­ty of sup­port­ing and defend­ing the Constitution of the United States and admin­is­ter­ing jus­tice with­out fear or favor, so help me God,” Jackson said. ​“I am tru­ly grate­ful to be part of the promise of our great Nation.” 

Even with its increased racial and gen­der diver­si­ty, Jackson joins a Court with three judi­cial appoint­ments by for­mer President Donald Trump and a con­ser­v­a­tive super­ma­jor­i­ty that has aggres­sive­ly rewrit­ten fed­er­al statu­to­ry and con­sti­tu­tion­al law. The Court has just com­plet­ed a judi­cial term that has been described as the most con­ser­v­a­tive since 1931 — the year before the Court held in Powell v. Alabama that indi­gent cap­i­tal defen­dants have a due process right to be rep­re­sent­ed by appointed counsel. 

Jackson is ​“join­ing the court at a time when con­ser­v­a­tives are … try­ing to actu­al­ly take us back” and undo the progress that has been made in the coun­try, Judith Browne Dianis, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Advancement Project, a civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tion devot­ed to racial jus­tice and mul­ti-racial grass­roots orga­niz­ing, told the Associated Press. ​“It’s like the Civil War that nev­er end­ed,” Dianis said. ​“That’s the court that she’s joining.” 

Jackson replaces a jus­tice who expressed increas­ing skep­ti­cism about the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and her appoint­ment is not expect­ed to have an imme­di­ate impact on the ide­o­log­i­cal dom­i­nance of the right wing of the Court on death-penal­ty or oth­er social jus­tice issues. Despite that polit­i­cal real­i­ty, Dianis said, ​“This is a momen­tous occa­sion and it’s still a beautiful moment.” 

Glynda Carr, the President and CEO of Higher Heights for America, a polit­i­cal action com­mit­tee work­ing for the elec­tion and empow­er­ment of Black women, also cel­e­brat­ed Jackson’s ele­va­tion to the Court. However, she cau­tioned that ​“one Black woman or a cohort of Black women can’t save this democ­ra­cy alone. We are a piece of it and we are doing our work, our part. She’s going to for­ev­er reshape and shape that court,” Carr told AP. ​“But she’s just a piece of the work that needs to hap­pen moving forward.”