Ketanji Brown Jackson Marks Confirmation To Supreme Court At White House Ceremony: “We Have Come A Long Way Toward Perfecting Our Union”
Ketanji Brown Jackson said Friday that her confirmation as the first Black woman to the Supreme Court “is a moment in which all Americans can take great pride.”
“We have come a long way toward perfecting our union,” Jackson said, to a crowd of hundreds on the South Lawn of the White House. “In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Broadcast and cable networks carried the celebration, a bit unusual for a nominee recently elevated to the high court but matching the historic moment. She devoted much of her remarks to thanking a slew of family members, friends, mentors, lawmakers and White House officials who steered her nomination through, but also to “the leadership of generations past who helped light the way, back to Martin Luther King Jr., Justice Thurgood Marshall and my personal heroine, Judge Constance Baker Motley.” Some in the crowd wiped away tears as she quoted Maya Angelou: “I do so now, while bringing the gifts my ancestors gave.”
Jackson, 51, was confirmed in a 53-47 vote Thursday, with three Republicans — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney — joining with all Democrats in favor. Her confirmation was never really in doubt in the Democratic-controlled Senate, but the process was more bruising than expected, as she faced hours of attacks from Republicans who claimed that she had been too lenient as a judge to those convicted of possession of child pornography.
President Joe Biden said that “there was verbal abuse, the anger, the constant interruptions, the most vile, baseless assertions and accusations. In the face of it all, Judge Jackson showed incredible the incredible character and integrity she possesses.” Kamala Harris, the first Black woman vice president, said that when she presided over the Senate confirmation vote she drafted a note to her goddaughter that told her “that I felt such a deep sense of pride and joy, and about what this moment means for our nation and for her future.”
The White House event was a larger staging than those for past nominees, with the Marine Band playing selections from West Side Story and patriotic hymns, a backdrop of red, white and blue on the Truman balcony and some of the pageantry that greets a visiting foreign leader. Biden, fulfilling a campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court, said that “we’re going to look back and see this as a moment of real change.”
Among those at the event were Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as well as Lonnie Bunch, the first African American to serve as the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. They were joined by Senate Democrats and cabinet secretaries, along with Jackson’s family members and friends.
It is still unclear when Jackson will be sworn in to the court. Justice Stephen Breyer said in his retirement announcement that he planned to step down at the end of the current term, which is in late June or early July.
Jackson told of receiving thousands of notes and cards and photos, “expressing just how much this moment means to so many people.”
The notes from children, she said, “speak directly to the hope and promise of America. It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. But we’ve made it.”
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