Home Appointments Associate Justice
Associate Justice
US Supreme Court
| Appointee | Ketanji Brown Jackson |
|---|---|
| Role | Associate Justice |
| Organisation | US Supreme Court |
| Domain | Judiciary |
| Start | 30 June 2022 |
| End | Currently in role |
| Notes | First Black woman on SCOTUS |
Institutional context
Jackson is the sixth woman on the Supreme Court of the United States and the first Black woman to serve in the institution's 232-year history. Her confirmation brought the simultaneous female composition of the Court to four for the first time.
Career path
Jackson earned a BA from Harvard and a JD from Harvard Law School. She clerked at three levels of the federal judiciary, including for Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. She served as a Vice Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission (2010–2014), as a federal district judge for the District of Columbia (2013–2021), and on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2021–2022).
Appointment
President Biden nominated her on 25 February 2022 to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer, fulfilling a 2020 campaign commitment. The Senate confirmed her on 7 April 2022 by 53–47, and she was sworn in on 30 June 2022 following Breyer's retirement.
Tenure
Active. Early opinions include her concurrence in Allen v. Milligan (2023) and her dissents in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023) and Trump v. United States (2024).
Cluster context
Jackson's 2022 appointment is a principal cluster event. The Supreme Court's pattern of female appointments shows the cluster effect clearly: one appointment per decade in the 1980s and 1990s; two in the 2000s and 2010s combined; two in 2020 and 2022 alone.