Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as first Black woman and 116th Supreme Court justice on Thursday, June 30, 2022 (previous coverage available here).
Jackson, a former federal public defender, is the first Supreme Court justice since Thurgood Marshall to have represented indigent criminal defendants. In addition, she also served as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Her work there focused on reducing unwarranted sentencing disparities and ensuring that federal sentences were just and proportionate.
President Obama nominated her to be a district court judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2012. She was confirmed with bipartisan support in 2013. She was one of President Biden’s first judicial nominees and quickly confirmed with bipartisan support to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2021.
Her historic confirmation to the Supreme Court meant she joined three other women — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett. It’s the first time four women are serving together on the nine-member court.
Justice Jackson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, then attended Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
In celebration of Black History Month, the Training Division is honoring black legal minds in the United States who have advanced civil rights and continue to inspire advocates to dismantle systems of oppression and work for a better tomorrow.