On Monday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
What We Know:
- With a Senate vote of 53-44, Jackson was confirmed and now holds the appeals court seat that former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland held. She became a federal judge in Washington DC in 2013 and was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
- Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) all joined Democrats in voting yes in Jackson’s vote. Graham stated, “I think she’s qualified. I think I try to be somewhat consistent here. She has a different philosophy than I do.” Christopher Kang, the chief counsel for Demand Justice, believes that Jackson’s experience makes her the perfect type of judge and is the blueprint for the type of judges the Senate should keep confirming.
“Judge Jackson’s confirmation will mark the beginning of a new era for a court system that Trump and McConnell have stacked in favor of the rich and powerful,” said Kang.
- Jackson’s most popular case is her 2019 opinion ruling that former White House counsel Don McGahn had to testify in the congressional investigation into former President Donald Trump and Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election. McGahn believed he had immunity in the case and didn’t have to participate in his congressional subpoena because he was under Trump.
- Jackson is a top pick for the Supreme Court if a vacancy appears while President Joe Biden is in office. Biden has made it one of his missions to make a Black woman a Supreme Court justice if the chance arises. Many believe Jackson is a shoo-in for a vacancy because she is 50-years-old, a Black woman, and has a good court record. Jackson also has served as a federal public defender and a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
- Many Democrats are hoping that Breyer retires by the end of the Supreme Court term so that Biden can nominate his pick for his seat. Breyer has served on the Supreme Court for 27 years and was nominated by former President Bill Clinton. For now, Democrats hold a slight led of control in the Senate, but with 2022 midterms coming up, some feel as if they may lose that control.
- In an interview with CNN, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she believes Breyer should retire at the end of the term. She stated that she would have to think about it more, but she’s “inclined to say yes.” If Breyer retires and Biden’s liberal choice is confirmed, the Supreme Court will continue to have three left-leaning Supreme Court justices in a majority right-leaning court. Minority Senate leader Mitch McConnell has claimed that he will not confirm Biden’s pick if Republicans retain the majority after the 2022 elections.
“I think in the middle of a presidential election, if you have a Senate of the opposite party of the president, you have to go back to the 1880’s to find the last time a vacancy was filled…I think it’s highly unlikely. I don’t think either party if it controlled, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election,” said McConnell.
Jackson is the first of Biden’s appeal court nominees to be confirmed and comes just after his nominee Zahid Quraishi was confirmed as a judge for the district court in New Jersey. Biden wants to add more diversity and liberal thinking judges to the appeals court and federal level courts to help balance out the conservative judges confirmed at the end of Trump’s presidency.
