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After serving ten years on the US District Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson has now been nominated to Supreme Court by President Joe Biden.
Ketanji Brown Jackson was born in Washington D.C. and raised in Miami, Florida. She attended Harvard University for both undergraduate and law school. Following her graduation from Harvard, Jackson was a clerk for two federal judges as well as a clerk for Justice Breyer himself. Jackson took up a private practice in 2003 until 2012 when she was nominated by President Barack Obama to join the US District Court located in Washington D.C.
With Ketanji Brown Jackson being the first Black woman to be nominated for the supreme court, there was a positive uproar across the United States because having a Black woman on the bench is well overdue. However, even with all the excitement surrounding her nomination, there was just as much anger surrounding the appointment outside of the typical partisan opposition.
During Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearing, many senators asked her questions regarding critical race theory, which is an intellectual and social movement that has been designed to teach people about the complexities of race and equality in the US.
“If you look at the Georgetown Day Schools curriculum, it is filled and overflowing with critical race theory,” said US Senator Ted Cruz regarding the school that Jackson is on the board of. Many comments similar to this one were made regarding Jackson. Ketanji Brown Jackson kept her head held high and responded gracefully to each question. Many challenged why Ketanji Brown Jackson was even being asked these unusual questions.
“Would they be asking these questions if this were not a Black woman?” stated Senator Raphael Warnock.
Many people argue that the questions that were being asked are legitimate and that any nominee would be getting asked these questions regardless of their race. However, that is simply not the case considering the fact that many questions did not surround her qualifications for the position of Supreme Court Justice and rather, were harping on issues such as critical race theory and allegations such as being “soft on child pornography.”
Despite facing four long days of grilling questions from senators, on April 7, 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson pulled through the hearing and was ultimately voted into the Supreme Court with a vote of 53 to 47.
These past two years have been incredibly historic for America with the first woman of color becoming Vice President and the first Black Supreme Court Justice being nominated to the bench. Despite the insecurities in America currently, the new diversity added to the US political system gives just a little bit of hope for a brighter future.