Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in, turns into 1st Black girl on US Supreme Court

Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn in to the Supreme Court, shattering a glass ceiling as the primary Black girl on the nation’s highest court docket.

The 51-year-old Jackson is the court docket’s 116th justice and he or she took the place Thursday of the justice she as soon as labored for. Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement took impact at midday.

Moments later, joined by her household, Jackson recited the 2 oaths required of Supreme Court justices, one administered by Breyer and the opposite by Chief Justice John Roberts.

“With a full heart, I accept the solemn responsibility of supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States and administering justice without fear or favor, so help me God,” Jackson stated in an announcement issued by the court docket. “I am truly grateful to be part of the promise of our great Nation. I extend my sincerest thanks to all of my new colleagues for their warm and gracious welcome.” Roberts welcomed Jackson “to the court and our common calling.” The ceremony was streamed reside on the court docket’s web site.

Jackson, a federal choose since 2013, is becoming a member of three different ladies, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett — the primary time 4 ladies will serve collectively on the nine-member court docket.

Biden nominated Jackson in February, a month after Breyer, 83, introduced he would retire on the finish of the court docket’s time period, assuming his successor had been confirmed. Breyer’s earlier-than-usual announcement and the situation he connected was a recognition of the Democrats’ tenuous maintain on the Senate in an period of hyper-partisanship, particularly surrounding federal judgeships.

The Senate confirmed Jackson’s nomination in early April, by a 53-47 principally party-line vote that included assist from three Republicans.

Jackson had been in a kind of judicial limbo since, remaining a choose on the federal appeals court docket in Washington, D.C., however not listening to any instances. Biden elevated her to that court docket from the district judgeship to which she was appointed by President Barack Obama.

Jackson will have the ability to start work instantly, however the court docket can have simply completed the majority of its work till the autumn, aside from emergency appeals that often come up. That will give her time to settle in and familiarize herself with the roughly two dozen instances the court docket already has agreed to listen to beginning in October in addition to lots of of appeals that can pile up over the summer time.

The court docket issued closing opinions earlier Thursday after a momentous and rancorous time period that included overturning Roe v. Wade’s assure of the proper to an abortion. One of Thursday’s selections restricted how the Environmental Protection Agency can use the nation’s essential anti-air air pollution legislation to cut back carbon dioxide emissions from energy vegetation, a blow to the combat in opposition to local weather change.