K etanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the US Senate on Thursday, becoming the first Black woman Justice in the nation's history.
Jackson was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a vote of 53-47 with bipartisan support. Republican Senators from Utah, Maine, and Alaska joined the Senate to support her confirmation. Jackson will take over the position of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer in October.
The confirmation of Judge Jackson will be a glass shattering achievement for America.
The ideological makeup of the Supreme Court will not be changed by Jackson's historic confirmation. She is the smallest liberal minority in a generation. According to former colleagues and mentors of Jackson, she will strive to be in the majority with her colleagues whenever possible, seeking out compromise and consensus from the minority position.
The Supreme Court could be brought to justice by Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Jackson's bipartisan confirmation is a win for President Joe Biden, after a contentious and at points inflammatory confirmation process. Jackson is the first Democrat to be appointed to the high court in 13 years, and she brings professional experience to the bench, including expertise in matters of criminal justice and sentencing disparity. Jackson will be the first former public defender to ever serve on the Supreme Court.
The high court could change major elements of American life in coming months with rulings on abortion access, gun rights, and religious liberty, and its reputation is at a crucial point as it wrestles with increasing politicization. The court faces growing calls for changes to its makeup and operations, with progressives pushing to add seats to the bench or install judicial term limits. Jackson is likely to be around to see the changes if they are made. She is expected to serve in her lifetime position at 51 years old.
Democrats control of the Senate made it impossible for Republicans to block Jackson's confirmation. At times her confirmation hearings were heated and at least two Republicans voted for her because of the ugliness of the process.
She said that her support of Jackson was dependent on the judge's qualifications, and also on her opposition to the politicization of the review process for Supreme Court nominees. The role of the Senate is not to determine how she will vote, but to examine the experience, qualifications and integrity of a nominee.
During the process, Republicans accused Jackson of being weak on crime and issuing light sentences to child porn offenders, which fact-checkers said were false. Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, asked her if babies are racist after she described an anti-racist book. Jackson was asked by a Republican senator from Tennessee if she could define "woman", which could be a reference to litigation over the rights of trans people in the court system.
Supreme Court confirmations have become more partisan. The Senate approved the last Democratic nominee, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, with nine Republicans supporting her. Ginsburg and Scalia were both confirmed by the Senate in the 90's. Jackson's confirmation was more bipartisan than the previous two because only three Republicans supported her.
Jackson's support among the public did not seem to be affected by the partisanship in Congress. A survey done by the law school found that a majority of adults supported Jackson's nomination.
Jackson is a judge who writes long opinions and works closely with her colleagues. She will try to vote with the majority according to her former mentors. She may find herself in dissent given the current makeup of the court.
Jackson will be in the ideological minority for the foreseeable future, and those who know her expect her to follow the example of Justice Breyer. While some Justices try to shape ideology and mold schools of legal thought by writing stinging dissents, Breyer tried to vote with the majority whenever possible to influence the language of opinions and the ultimate outcome of the cases. He said in 2020 that a dissent is a failure.
According to Kenneth Feinberg, a close friend of Breyer, Jackson learned from him that it was better to secure five votes than to write a lone dissent.
Jackson has acknowledged the power of dissent. Jackson said that many Justices have used the Dissent mechanism to describe their opinions to others.
A law professor at NYU says that Jackson will be joining the most hobbled liberal minority in a generation. During Reconstruction, the Supreme Court had a skewed ideological balance, and Justices in the minority such as John Marshall Harlan used their dissents to lay the groundwork for challenges to rulings they disagreed with generations later.
Murray thinks that there could be an opportunity for Jackson to find agreement with conservative colleagues on criminal justice issues. When such questions come before the bench, Jackson's colleagues may recognize her expertise.
Jackson's historic tenure on the nation's highest court will begin next term, which will include consequential cases including two challenges to affirmative action in higher education. Jackson will not be involved in the Harvard case as she serves on the school's Board of Overseers. It could be the first case of many during her lifetime appointment in which she weighs in on some of the most critical questions before American society. She will speak with a voice and perspective never before seen in the institution.
Madeleine Carlisle can be reached at madeleine.carlisle@time.com.
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