The US Senate proceeded on Thursday with the historic confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, of which she will be the first black magistrate.
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All the elected representatives of the Democratic Party and three moderate Republican senators voted to bring this brilliant 51-year-old lawyer into the American temple of law.
This magistrate was chosen at the end of February by Democratic President Joe Biden, who had promised during his campaign to appoint, for the first time, a black woman to the highest judicial institution in the country, 233 years old.
“It’s a wonderful day, a joyous day, an inspiring day,” said Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer.
As if to underline the historic nature of this nomination, Kamala Harris, the first black woman to become vice-president of the United States, chaired the voting session.
The confirmation, which Judge Jackson watched live from the White House alongside Joe Biden, was met with a standing ovation from Democrats in the chamber.
Of the 115 justices who have served on the Supreme Court so far, there have been only five women — four white and one Hispanic — and two black men, one of whom, Clarence Thomas, was appointed by George Bush father and still sits.
At the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson will replace the progressive magistrate Stephen Breyer, 83, who will retire at the end of June.
President Biden has never ceased to praise the “extraordinary qualifications” of this Harvard graduate, who has experience in private and public; and served as a lawyer and federal judge.
This is the Democratic leader’s first appointment to the high court. However, it will not change the balance of power within the prestigious college of nine magistrates, whose mission is to ensure the constitutionality of laws and to settle important societal debates in the United States, such as abortion or same-sex marriage. .
Before Mr. Biden, Donald Trump indeed had the opportunity to appoint three judges to the Supreme Court, anchoring the case in conservatism, possibly for several decades.
Because of this low stake, the elected Republicans mainly used the hearing of Ketanji Brown Jackson before the Senate to resonate their campaign themes seven months before crucial legislative elections, starting with crime, which according to them is increasing because of the “laxity” of Joe Biden.
Echoing this thesis, they attacked the candidate on her record as a judge, accusing her of having pronounced light sentences in several cases of child pornography, to which “KBJ” sometimes opposed a certain weariness.
“Today the far left got the Supreme Court justice they wanted,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell lambasted just before the vote.
The Democrats, who will no doubt campaign on the historic nature of this nomination at a time when Joe Biden is struggling in the polls, have on the contrary praised her experience and the support she has from police and police unions. former prosecutors.
“You are here because you deserve it” and “No one will steal my joy!” launched the black senator Cory Booker during the hearing, in a flight that tore a tear from the magistrate.
Mother of two daughters, Ketanji Brown Jackson is married to a prominent surgeon.