The 51-year-old has been a judge on the District Court of Appeals for the Capital District of Columbia since 2021.
(Photo: action press)
Washington US President Joe Biden nominated lawyer Ketanji Brown Jackson for the vacant post on the US Supreme Court. This could be the first black woman to become a Supreme Court judge. Brown is one of “the brightest legal professionals in our country and will be an extraordinary judge,” Biden said on Friday.
The 51-year-old has been a judge on the District Court of Appeals for the Capital District of Columbia since 2021. The court is considered particularly important in the US because of its jurisdiction over the US Congress and many government agencies.
Brown has been the top candidate for the Supreme Court for weeks. She was born in the US capital Washington and grew up in Florida. She studied at Harvard University and worked as a lawyer.
Judge Stephen Breyer, 83, announced his resignation in January. His departure has enabled Biden to fill a seat on the politically contested Supreme Court for the first time since taking office. With its decisions on particularly contentious issues such as abortion, immigration and same-sex marriages, the US Supreme Court repeatedly sets the course for society.
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The personnel does not change anything about the conservative majority at the court, but is still of great political importance. Ex-President Donald Trump was able to place three judges on the Supreme Court, which is why six of the nine judges are currently considered conservative. They are appointed for life. Their selection is therefore a highly competitive political process.
The Senate must approve Biden’s nomination. Biden’s Democrats only have a wafer-thin majority in the House of Representatives. Two Republicans and one Republican also voted in favor of Brown’s appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals last year.
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