Joe Biden appoints Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court

US President Joe Biden has appointed Federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court. She will become the first black woman to sit there. The announcement of the nomination, delayed due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is expected to spark a battle for his confirmation in a sharply divided Senate. Mitch McConnellthe leader of the Republicans in the Senate, who had hastened the confirmation of the nomination of the conservative judge Amy Coney Barrettpromised a process “rigorous and comprehensive”.

Formerly a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Ketanji Brown Jackson will replace Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, appointed in 1994 by Bill Clinton, who announced his retirement in January. The balance of the Supreme Court, of six conservatives for three liberals, will remain unchanged by this appointment.

By appointing her, the American president is keeping his promise. During his campaign, candidate Biden pledged, if given the opportunity, to appoint an African-American to the Supreme Court, an institution that has been composed exclusively of white men for nearly two centuries. At 51, Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the sixth woman to sit on the highest court in the United States. Of the 115 people who served on the Supreme Court, only two were black, and they were both men.

I’m proud to announce that I am nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court. Currently ser… https://t.co/zbo258al3n

— POTUS (@President Biden)

The Senate already voted last year, 53 to 44, to confirm the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to which she had been appointed by the president. She had the support of three Republican senators at the time, and was asked during her hearing about the role race played in her decisions. She replied that she did not play any.

The Supreme Court, the highest American judicial body, whose primary mission is to ensure the constitutionality of laws, plays a crucial role in resolving important societal debates in the United States. It is made up of nine judges, each of whom is appointed for life by the American president with necessary confirmation by the Senate.

Before Mr. Biden, Donald Trump had the opportunity to appoint three justices to the Supreme Court, anchoring the case in conservatism possibly for several decades. Sick or elderly, members of the Supreme Court can retire from the age of 70, but they rarely do.

Sitting in a building facing the Capitol, the Supreme Court plays an essential role in the development of jurisprudence. Its judgments establish the legal standard, in particular on sensitive issues: abortion, homosexual marriage, racial discrimination, death penalty, electoral disputes, carrying a weapon, etc. Its judges enjoy de facto tenure and, as a guarantee of their independence, the same guaranteed remuneration for life.