Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first female and African American justice sworn into the United States Supreme Court. She replaces Justice Stephen Beyer at a critical and vulnerable period in American society. Having a Black woman rise to the land’s highest court is long overdue, and her historical confirmation inspires many around the country and the World. While Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson broke the glass ceiling for Black women, she was also the first justice since Thurgood Marshall, who retired in 1991, to have experience serving as a public defender. Under the Sixth Amendment, the court appoints public defenders to represent those who cannot afford legal counsel. Justice Brown Jackson’s experience as a public defender and as a Black woman in the United States sets her apart from the other Supreme Court justices since she has direct knowledge of defending the most vulnerable against unfair trials and harsh and unusual punishment. For her, it is professional and personal; she is a symbol of aspiration. She has perspective and experience fighting for the people who experience inequality, inequity, and injustice, which is precisely what America needs right now as the Supreme Court prepares for cases related to the potential Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965) violations. The elections for Congress in the United States will take place on November 8, 2022.
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Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
