Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court

The Senate chamber galleries were full for the first time in two years Thursday while lawmakers voted 53-47 to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the nation’s highest court as a replacement for retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. Three Republican senators — Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — supported Jackson, pushing her confirmation past the majority hurdle it needed. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., delayed the vote by being absent from the floor, and Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., voted from the cloakroom because they did not wear ties, as required by Senate rules. President Joe Biden and Jackson watched the vote from the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

What happens next? Jackson will not be sworn in until Breyer retires at the end of the current Supreme Court term in late June or early July. When she takes her seat, she will be the first black woman on the Supreme Court and the 116th justice. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the vote, also the first black woman in her position.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard interview a law professor about what kind of rulings to expect from Jackson on The World and Everything in It podcast.