
Since Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced last month that he would retire, court watchers have identified a short list of potential contenders for the seat– particularly based on President Joe Biden’s promise to name a Black woman to the nation’s highest court.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, J. Michelle Childs and Leondra Kruger have all been discussed as possible nominees for the Supreme Court. Biden’s nominee, the first of his presidency, will face a Senate confirmation process after she is named.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was born in Washington D.C. and grew up in Florida. She was president of the debate team in high school, to which she attributes much of her early success. She went on to earn honors degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law.
Early in her career, she attained three federal clerkships, including one under Justice Stephen Breyer, who she could now possibly replace. Unusual among the Supreme Court, Jackson became a public defender and would go on to become vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. On the commission, she fought for more racially equitable drug penalties.
She was nominated to the federal bench in 2012. During this time, she sentenced the man who fired his gun in a D.C. pizza shop due to his belief in the so-called Pizzagate conspiracy.
Jackson was a longshot pick of sorts back in 2016 when former President Barack Obama was looking to fill a vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Today, she’s considered a leading contender.
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