Biden to Announce Federal Judge as Supreme Court Nominee

A federal judge is in line to be the next associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

According to multiple reports, President Joe Biden will nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to a soon-to-be vacant seat on the Supreme Court. If confirmed by the Senate, Jackson would succeed Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom Jackson served as a clerk from 1999 to 2000. Breyer will retire at the end of the current Supreme Court term.

Biden is expected to make a formal announcement about his nomination Friday afternoon.

Jackson, 51, is a native of Miami, Florida, and received both her bachelor's and law degrees from Harvard University. In addition to clerking for Justice Breyer, Jackson clerked for two federal judges. She also worked in private practice, as a federal public defender, and as assistant special counsel to the U. S. Sentencing Committee.

Jackson received a recess appointment to the federal bench in September 2012. President Obama named Jackson to the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Four months later, Jackson received a formal nomination for that seat vacated by Henry Harold Kennedy, Jr. The Senate confirmed Jackson's nomination in March 2013. During the confirmation process, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) praised Jackson and endorsed her nomination.

“Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, for her integrity, is unequivocal. She is an amazing person,” Ryan said.

She held the district court judgeship until she was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit in 2021. The Senate confirmed Jackson to that post by a 53-44 vote. Jackson succeeded Attorney General Merrick Garland in that position.