On February 25, 2022, President Joe Biden announced that he would nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to the position of associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to fill the vacancy by Stephen Breyer, who announced his retirement on January 27, 2022, at the age of 83. Jackson, a former law clerk of Breyer, was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, having been appointed by Biden in 2021. Jackson is the first Black woman in U.S. history to be nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Her nomination was sent to the Senate on February 28, and her confirmation hearings were held by the Senate Judiciary Committee from March 21 to 24, 2022. The Senate confirmed her on April 7, 2022, by a 53 to 47 vote. She took the oath of office on June 30, 2022.
Background
Under the Appointments Clause (Article II, Section 2) of the United States Constitution, judicial appointments are made by the president of the United States with the Advice and Consent of the United States Senate. Breyer was nominated to the Supreme Court by Bill Clinton on August 3, 1994, to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Harry Blackmun. Breyer was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 87–9. On the Supreme Court, Breyer was often a member of the court's liberal wing.
Retirement of Justice Breyer
On January 26, 2022, NBC News reported that Justice Breyer planned to retire at the end of the court's current term. In response to request for comment, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted, "It has always been the decision of any Supreme Court Justice if and when they decide to retire, and how they want to announce it, and that remains the case today." President Biden cited his experience as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1997 as the driving force in the process of finding a candidate similar to Justice Breyer. His retirement left Samuel Alito as the lone remaining military veteran on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the wake of the impending Supreme Court vacancy, Democratic groups announced plans for a multi-million dollar campaign to promote Biden's eventual nominee. Demand Justice, a nonprofit led by Democratic strategists, said it would spend whatever it takes in order to get the nomination through the Senate.
Nomination
Potential candidates
On January 27, Biden reiterated his intention to keep his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman. An ABC News/Ipsos poll a few days after found that 76% of Americans believed Biden should consider all possible nominees, while a substantially smaller share of Democrats, at 54%, said the same. Only 23% said he should follow through on his pledge to consider only nominees who are Black women. A simultaneous Morning Consult/Politico poll found that 51% of Americans supported Biden's intention to nominate a Black woman, including 82% of Democrats and 47% of independents. A poll in early February by Data for Progress found that 64% of Americans (including 93% of Democrats and 59% of independents) supported Biden's decision to nominate a Black woman.
Some Republicans criticized Biden's pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the court as hypocritical, referencing his 2005 threat to filibuster Janice Rogers Brown, a conservative judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, if she was nominated to the Supreme Court.
Around February 22, 2022, it was reported that Biden had met with his top three contenders, Ketanji Brown Jackson, J. Michelle Childs, and Leondra Kruger.
Announcement
On February 25, 2022, it was announced that Biden would nominate Jackson. In his remarks on the announcement, Biden listed "traits of pragmatism, historical perspective, wisdom, [and] character" as criteria for the nomination, characterized Jackson's rulings as "carefully reasoned, tethered to precedent, and [demonstrating respect] for how the law impacts everyday people," and cited her experience as a public defender, trial court judge, and member of the Sentencing Commission.
Voting alignment
Analysis by FiveThirtyEight reported that Jackson would likely rule in similar ways to other Democratic appointees on the Court, with Judicial Common Space scores placing her as slightly more moderate than these justices and estimates from the Database of Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections placing her as slightly more liberal than them.
Responses to nomination
Support
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee including Dick Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal, Amy Klobuchar, and Patrick Leahy voiced their support for Jackson's nomination.