Jackson Confirmed as First Black Female High Court Justice

The US Senate has confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court in a historic vote that will make her the first Black female justice in the court's 233-year history.

Cheers rang out across the Senate chamber as Jackson, a 51-year-old appeals court judge nominated by President Joe Biden, was confirmed by a vote of 53 to 47.

Presiding over the vote was Vice President Kamala Harris, also the first Black woman to hold her office. As she left the Capitol, Harris said she was "overjoyed."

Biden tweeted after the vote saying, "we've taken another step toward making our highest court reflect the diversity of America."

Jackson will take her seat when Justice Stephen Breyer, who was also nominated by a Democratic president, retires this summer.

During four days of Senate hearings last month, Jackson spoke of her parents' struggles through racial segregation and said her "path was clearer" than theirs as a Black American after the introduction of civil rights laws.

She told senators she would apply the law "without fear or favor" and pushed back on Republican attempts to portray her as too soft on criminals.

Judith Browne Dianis, an American civil rights attorney, said Jackson will make the court more reflective of communities that are most impacted by it.

"The highest court in the land now will have a first-hand perspective of how the law impacts communities of color — via voting rights, police misconduct, abortion access, housing discrimination or the criminal legal system, among other issues," she said.

Despite conservative criticism of her record, Jackson won three Republican Party votes.

Jackson will be just the third Black justice and the sixth woman. She will join three other women — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett — meaning that four of the current nine Supreme Court justices will be women for the first time in history.

The lifetime appointment will likely see Jackson on the bench for decades but it will not change the ideological balance of the current court, with its 6-3 conservative majority.