On February 25, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the 116th Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Judge Jackson represented defendants who did not have the means to pay for a lawyer. She would be the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court.
- President Obama nominated Judge Jackson to serve as the Vice-Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2009.
- Judge Jackson stood out as a high achiever throughout her childhood. She was a speech and debate star who was elected “mayor” of Palmetto Junior High and student body president of Miami Palmetto Senior High School. Judge Jackson will be an associate justice of the highest court in the nation, a role she’ll be appointed to for life.
- The 51-year-old D.C. native served as district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2021. She was then appointed to fill the seat left vacant by Attorney General Merrick Garland in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President Joe Biden.
- President Obama nominated Judge Jackson to serve as the Vice Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2009, and she was confirmed with bipartisan support in 2010.
- The 53-47 final vote tally showed bipartisan support for Jackson, with three Republicans joining all Democrats to elevate the 51-year-old federal judge to a lifetime appointment.
- President Bill Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the Supreme Court in 1993, and she was then confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 96-3 vote.
- The U.S. Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court Justice in 2009 to replace retiring Justice David Souter.
- Elena Kagan was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice in 2010, replacing John Paul Stevens.
- Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice in 2020, replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
- Nine Justices make up the current Supreme Court: one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices.
- Article III, §1, of the Constitution provides that “[t]he Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.”
