Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson made history Thursday, becoming the first Black woman confirmed to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Senate voted 53-47 Thursday afternoon to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee to the nation’s highest bench. Vice President Kamala Harris smiled as she led the Senate proceeding.
Vermont’s own U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have supported Jackson’s nomination since Biden nominated her in February. Both voted “yes” on Thursday.
Leahy played a key role in the confirmation process as the most senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and former chair of the committee. In a floor speech ahead of Thursday’s vote, he celebrated the “long-overdue” and historic nature of Jackson’s confirmation as “a major step forward in our democracy.”
“(Courts) have to be accountable to all, all, all Americans,” Leahy said. “To do so, they must reflect the diversity of our nation, the diversity that’s at the foundation of our democracy.”
But he said he also supported her confirmation because of her qualifications as a Harvard and Harvard Law graduate, a law clerk, a public defender, a private practice attorney, a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and a federal appellate and district court judge.
“No one — no one — can argue that Judge Jackson is not objectively qualified to be confirmed,” he said, raising his voice.
Leahy’s floor remarks came after the Senate Judiciary Committee’s heated series of hearings on Jackson, in which Republican members called into question her history of imposing sentences as a judge, her role as a board member of a private elementary school and her opinion on the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
On the third day of Jackson’s committee hearings, Leahy grew so angry by the conduct of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that he stormed out of the room, telling nearby Capitol Hill reporters that Graham’s behavior was “outrageous.” Two days later at a press conference at the Burlington International Airport, Leahy banged on the podium as he decried Republicans’ “hypocritical attacks that were racist, misogynist and unprecedented.”
Leahy said on the floor Thursday that Republicans hurled “manufactured accusations” at Jackson during the hearing process that “hold no water.”
“They serve only to showcase the vitriol and contempt with which some members of this body approach their sacred constitutional role of advice and consent,” he said. “I said during the hearings, and I will say it again: It is distressing. It is disheartening. And as the dean of the Senate, it is saddening.”
In a written statement following Thursday’s vote, Sanders said Jackson “has proven through the confirmation process that she is not only immensely qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, but that she is committed to fairness and equal justice under the law.”
“In these difficult times, the stakes for the future of this country are higher than ever and the Supreme Court will play a significant role in shaping that future,” he said. “In my view, we need a new member of the Supreme Court who has a strong track record of standing up for justice — economic justice, racial justice, social justice, political justice, and environmental justice. There is no doubt that Judge Jackson is that person.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Ketanji Brown Jackson’s first name and reported the incorrect roll call vote.
