Miami-Raised Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Is Likely Candidate for Supreme Court – NBC 6 South Florida

As Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is set to retire at the end of the current term, all eyes are on President Joe Biden’s pick to replace him.

Biden has pledged during his presidential campaign that if he were given the chance to nominate someone to the court, he would make history by choosing a Black woman.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson — who currently serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — is one of the names that have seemingly topped any list of potential nominees.

Born in Washington D.C., Jackson was raised in Miami and attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School.

She attended Harvard as an undergraduate and for law school. President Barack Obama nominated her to be a district court judge, and Biden elevated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Early in her career, she was also a law clerk for Breyer.

NBC News reported Jackson, 51, has a background as a public defender, worked on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and has drawn praise for her labor-friendly rulings.

Jackson is married to Patrick G. Jackson, who is the twin brother of former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s brother-in-law. Ryan has praised Jackson in the past, testifying on her behalf during her 2012 confirmation hearing to be a district court judge.

U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger are also seen as possible nominees.

Adding a Black woman to the court would mean a series of firsts — four female justices and two Black justices serving at the same time on the nine-member court. Justice Clarence Thomas is the court’s only Black justice and just the second ever, after Thurgood Marshall.