After a week of shocking and painful headlines—both foreign and domestic—it feels like long past time for some positive news. That’s what we got on Friday morning, when news broke that President Joe Biden was expected to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer on the United States Supreme Court.
If confirmed by the Senate, Jackson, 51—who currently serves on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.—would be the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice. Below, find everything you need to know about Jackson:
She has extensive legal experience.
Jackson clerked for Breyer and has served as a federal public defender in Washington, also acting as a commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission and serving on the federal district court in D.C. as an appointee of President Barack Obama. Additionally, Jackson has worked as a lawyer in private practice and defended detainees held in U.S. military custody at Guantanamo Bay.
She’s a Harvard alum.
Jackson studied government as an undergrad at Harvard University, receiving her law degree from the institution in 1996. (According to Politico, she was reportedly partnered with actor Matt Damon once in a drama class. Not super-relevant to her experience as a jurist, but fun to know, right?)
She’s a devoted mom of two.
Jackson has two daughters—Talia and Leila—and when Leila was 11, she wrote an adorable letter to Obama urging him to choose her mother to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, saying, “She’s determined, honest and never breaks a promise to anyone even if there are other things she’d rather do. She can demonstrate commitment and is loyal and never brags. I think she would make a great Supreme Court justice.”
She’s got some interesting GOP family ties.
Jackson’s husband, surgeon Patrick Johnson, is the twin brother of former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan’s brother-in-law. (Ryan’s sister-in-law’s husband, to be precise.) “Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, for her integrity is unequivocal,” Ryan said at Jackson’s district court nomination hearing in 2012, adding, “She’s an amazing person, and I favorably recommend her consideration.”
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