Ketanji Brown Jackson is poised to become the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court.

According to a tweet from the POTUS account Friday morning, President Joe Biden will nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman to be nominated to the nation's highest court.

Biden announced on Twitter that he is nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court. Currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, she is one of our nation's brightest legal minds and will be an exceptional Justice.

Justice Stephen Breyer retired from the Supreme Court on Jan. 26, ending his 28-year tenure. This news prompted speculation that President Biden would nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, as he had previously stated his intention to do so at a 2020 news conference in Delaware.

He stated during the 2020 conference that they were compiling a list of qualified and experienced African American women for the court, but he would not disclose the names until the vetting process was completed.

After serving as district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2021, Jackson, 51, was a rumored front-runner for a Supreme Court vacancy after filling the seat of Attorney General Merrick Garland in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a role she was appointed to just last year by President Biden.

The Harvard graduate with a background in criminal justice reform left her position at Feinberg Rozen in 2003 to work at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, with the goal of addressing the disparity in federal sentencing.

Evidently, as the vice-chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission from 2010 to 2014, Jackson continued to contribute to the reform of the criminal justice system by supporting an action to reduce crack cocaine penalties and address sentencing disparities between Black and white offenders.

At the April 2021 confirmation hearing for judicial nominees, Jackson stated that she was surprised at the number of her clients who were unaware of what occurred during their trials, despite her experience as a public defender.

No one explained to them what they were supposed to expect after going through the most consequential proceedings in their lives, she said.

In 2019, while the House impeachment inquiry was ongoing, Jackson presided over the Trump Justice Department's effort to prevent former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying to Congress. According to the National Law Journal, Jackson wrote a 120-page opinion stating that "no one is above the law," which compelled him to appear before the House under subpoena.

Despite the addition of Jackson to the Supreme Court, the political leanings of the court will remain unchanged. Currently, there are six conservative justices and three liberal justices on the court, including retiring Justice Breyer.

President Biden's commitment to judiciary diversity is further strengthened by the nomination of Judge Jackson, as he has already made significant progress in diversifying appellate courts. To date, he has nominated eight Black women to the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals, with five of them being confirmed.

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