Ketanji Brown Jackson graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School, beginning her legal career with clerkships including one for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, before working as a federal public defender, a role relatively uncommon among eventual Supreme Court justices.
Jackson served as a vice chair of the US Sentencing Commission before being appointed a federal district court judge in 2013, and later to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in 2021, building a substantial record as a jurist across multiple levels of the federal judiciary.
In February 2022, President Biden nominated Jackson to the US Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she had once clerked. She was confirmed by the Senate in April 2022, becoming the first Black woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court in its more than two-century history.
Jackson's confirmation was widely regarded as a historic milestone in American judicial history, arriving after generations of the Court's composition excluding Black women entirely. She has continued to serve on the Court, bringing perspectives from her background as a public defender to its deliberations.
- First Black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court (confirmed 2022)
- Served as a federal public defender, an uncommon background among Supreme Court justices
- Vice chair of the US Sentencing Commission
- Served on both federal district and appellate courts before her Supreme Court confirmation
- Clerked for the same Justice, Stephen Breyer, whose retirement she was nominated to fill
- Unconventional professional paths can lead to the highest offices. Her public defender background was unusual among Supreme Court nominees, yet became part of her distinct value on the bench.
- Institutional firsts often arrive after decades of groundwork. Her confirmation followed generations of judicial exclusion of Black women from the Court.
- Mentorship can come full circle. She was nominated specifically to fill the seat of the justice she once clerked for.
- Representation on the highest courts shapes public trust in justice itself. Her presence expands the range of experience reflected in the Court's composition.