As of: 02/25/2022 6:40 p.m
During the election campaign, US President Biden promised to nominate a black woman for the Supreme Court for the first time. Now the time has come: Ketanji Brown Jackson is to succeed constitutional judge Stephen Breyer.
US judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is set to become the first black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. President Joe Biden nominated the lawyer for the vacant post on the Supreme Court.
Brown is one of “the brightest lawyers in our country and will be an exceptional judge,” Biden said. She is a “historic candidate”. During the election campaign, Biden had promised to appoint a black woman to the powerful court for the first time in history. In the past few weeks, Biden has examined several candidates.
The choice now fell on the 51-year-old, who is currently working at the Federal Court of Appeals in the capital, Washington. The court is considered particularly important in the US because of its jurisdiction over the US Congress and many government agencies.
Brown was born in the US capital Washington and grew up in Florida. She studied at Harvard University and worked as a lawyer. If confirmed by the Senate, Brown would succeed Liberal Constitutional Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Breyer, the oldest Supreme Court justice at 83, announced in January that he would be retiring at the end of the current court year in June.
Personnel of great political importance
His departure has enabled Biden to fill a seat on the 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.
The personnel does not change anything regarding the conservative majority at the court, but it 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. Like the Republicans, the Democrats currently have 50 senators. In stalemates, however, Vice President Kamala Harris makes the difference in her role as Senate President. That’s why the Democrats actually have a majority – albeit an extremely narrow one.
Biden names first African-American Supreme Court nominee
Katrin Brand, ARD Washington, February 25, 2022 at 6:39 p.m
