“Today to me is a day of joy,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said in his opening remarks March 21 as the Senate Judiciary Committee kicked off its Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“President Biden nominated someone … to be the 116th judge of the Supreme Court who is extraordinarily talented and who also happens to be a Black woman, something we’ve never seen before. Judge Jackson’s nomination breaks an artificially confining mold of our past and opens up a more promising potential-filled future for us all as Americans,” Booker said.
Jackson was nominated by President Joe Biden in February to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. If confirmed, she will be the first Black woman on the high court.
“I cannot tell you how happy I am. Today we should rejoice,” he said.
In remarks that were at times emotional, Booker also praised Jackson for her work as a public defender, which, should she be confirmed, would also be a first for the Supreme Court.
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