The United States Supreme Court is currently holding confirmation hearings after the Feb. 25 nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson by President Joe Biden. The hearings are occuring after the announcement of the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer. According to Oyez, Justice Breyer, was appointed the the court in 1994 and has since been known for his practical and personable way of viewing laws that affect people’s daily lives. He is left-leaning on the Court.

Ketanji Brown Jackson is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She has a Bachelor’s and Law degree from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed her to the District Court. She became a United States Circuit Judge in 2021.

She is the first Black woman nominated to the United States Supreme Court. Jackson has won awards from multiple prestigious universities, including Harvard, Columbia and the University of Chicago Law School. She carries 10 positions at separate associations under her belt, alongside her full time professional career. If nominated, she will succeed Justice Breyer in June or July of this year.

Ketanji Brown Jackson would make history, being able to sit as the sixth woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court, according to Smithsonian Magazine. According to Represent Women.org, she would become the fourth out of three women currently on the court who are Associate Justices.

She has fought for educational protection and rights for a majority of her career. As a former public defender, Jackson is facing backlash for past job positions. Her work involved representing people incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, according to Politico.

The National Education Association reports that Judge Jackson will be the first justice since Thurgood Marshall to have a criminal defense background. The range of her expertise will offer new insights to a variety of issues the Court faces in the future.

Ketanji Brown Jackson is more than a phenomenal candidate for the role of a Supreme Court Associate Justice. Her credentials shine through by working on various courts in legal spaces. Also according to Politico, “she ruled against the Trump administration’s attempt to shield former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying before Congress, writing that ‘presidents are not kings’” in 2019.

This brings an excellent message forward about her rulings. She hears potential laws to their fullest and knows that presidents deserve to be held accountable, not worshipped.

As a working mother, she knows how to balance her work life schedule and form empathy for candidates. Jackson is known as trustworthy and consistent in and out of the White House. According to Politico, 578 opinions were written by her when on the D.C. District Court, and 10 decisions were reversed during that time.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is the modern, witty woman the world needs to see as a representative of the highest law in the United States. In her words, “Do what you need to do before what you want to do.”