Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the 116th justice of the United States Supreme Court, the first black woman and the first former public defender to join the nine-member panel.
She was sworn in at noon on June 30 by Chief Justice John Roberts and outgoing Justice Stephen Breyer, whose retirement takes effect Thursday after 30 years in the country’s High Court.
The Chief Justice took the constitutional oath and Justice Breyer took the judicial oath in a small ceremony attended by members of Justice Jackson’s family. She was sworn into the role on a Bible held by her husband Patrick.
“I am delighted to welcome Judge Jackson to the court and to our common calling,” said Judge Roberts, who shook hands with Judge Jackson after his oaths. The Chief Justice said there would be a formal ceremony in the fall, but Thursday’s oaths “allow her to perform her duties, and she looks forward to getting there without further delay.”
The ceremony took place just two hours after the new conservative-majority court ended its last term, concluding a series of rulings with far-reaching implications for abortion rights, the Second Amendment, environmental protections , Indigenous sovereignty and religion in schools.
After a summer break, the judges will return for a 2022-2023 session to consider new cases and hear oral argument.
Justice Jackson – who was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the US Senate earlier this year, after Justice Breyer announced his retirement and paved the way for his former clerk to join the High Court – will not reshape probably not the conservative-majority balance of the court.
She was confirmed in the Senate on April 7 by a vote of 53 to 47, with all 50 Democratic senators voting in her favour, joined by only three Republicans – Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.
During his confirmation hearings, Republican members of Congress and right-wing media personalities sought to undermine his legitimacy, examining his nine-year record on the federal bench and his experience as a federal public defender in cases involving people detained at Guantanamo Bay.
Judge Jackson is also the first Supreme Court justice with significant criminal defense experience since Thurgood Marshall, the influential civil rights lawyer whose legal arguments dismantled segregation and sought to end legalized discrimination, work that had a lasting influence on his decision-making as the nation’s leader. first black justice of the Supreme Court.
After his retirement in 1991, no other judge has had experience representing some of the most vulnerable people in the criminal justice system, or dealing with the kinds of life-threatening criminal cases that have come before the courts. courts.
From 1999 to 2000, Judge Jackson served as Breyer’s clerk. She also clerked for First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Bruce Selya from 1997 to 1998, and for Massachusetts District Judge Patti Sarlis from 1996 to 1997.
She served as Deputy Federal Public Defender from 2005 to 2007. In 2009, she was appointed by then-President Barack Obama to serve as Vice Chairman of the United States Sentencing Commission.
In 2012, she was appointed as a judge in the United States District Court in Washington DC. President Biden appointed her as a federal appeals court judge in Washington DC in March 2021.
This is a developing story
The Independent Gt