Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, reflected on the significance of the first Black woman potentially serving on the nation’s highest court.
“For over two centuries since our country’s founding, the court consisted exclusively of white men. Of the 115 justices, 108 have been white men. Judge [Ketanji Brown] Jackson would be only the sixth woman and first Black woman to serve” on the Supreme Court, Beatty said, on the final day of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings for the historic nominee.
“If confirmed, she would shatter a glass ceiling that many Americans, including those who fought and died for voting rights, a more perfect union and a just America, believed that they would never live to see it broken,” Beatty said.
But Beatty also urged senators to not isolate Jackson’s confirmation vote “to her gender or to her race” but instead to “closely examine her credentials and her sterling judiciary record.”
After three days of testimony from Jackson and questions from senators, the committee will hear from professional and personal witnesses who can speak to Jackson’s work and her character. Jackson was nominated by President Joe Biden in February to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. After the hearings conclude, the committee will issue a recommendation in preparation for a full Senate vote.
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