‘We’ve Made It’: Jackson Savors Moment as Biden Hails Court Win

Incoming Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson celebrated becoming the first Black woman placed on the nation’s highest court, declaring“we’ve made it” in an impassioned speech at the White House.

Jackson was introduced by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris following her confirmation Thursday by the Senate. In remarks on the White House’s South Lawn, Jackson cast her ascension as historic for Black women and a mark of progress for the U.S.

“It has taken 132 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States,” Jackson said. “But we’ve made it.”

WATCH: Incoming Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson celebrates becoming the first Black woman placed on the nation’s highest court.

Source: Bloomberg

“The path was cleared for me so that I might rise to this occasion,” she added. While tearing up, she quoted poet Maya Angelou: “I am the dream and the hope of a slave.”

Jackson thanked Harris for her counsel during her confirmation proceedings and thanked former President Barack Obama for nominating her to be a federal judge.

“We have come a long way toward perfecting our union,” she said. “In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Biden, who pledged as a presidential candidate to seat the first-ever Black woman on the nation’s top court, said Jackson’s confirmation would inspire women and people of color.

“This is gonna let so much sun shine on so many young women, so many young black women, so many minorities that it’s real,” Biden said. “It’s real. We’re gonna look back -- nothing to do with me -- we’re gonna look back and see this as a moment of real change in American history.”

WATCH: President Joe Biden announces Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Source: Bloomberg

Multiple Cabinet members and lawmakers were in attendance but none of the Supreme Court’s nine justices.

Jackson’s confirmation was backed by all 50 Democrats and 3 Republican senators. She’ll succeed Justice Stephen Breyer, who has said he’ll step down at the end of the current term, leaving a few months before Jackson will be able to take her seat.

Read more: Jackson’s Confirmation Tees Up Monthslong Wait to Join Court

Jackson, 51, faced withering questioning from Republicans on the Judiciary committee during her confirmation hearing, some of which Democrats charged was unfair, such as questions about her religious faith and her views on transgender issues.

She was also challenged to defend sentencing decisions in a small number of child pornography possession cases that some Republicans said were too lenient. That led to some on the fringe of the Republican party, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, accusing Jackson’s supporters of siding with pedophiles.

“I knew the person I nominated will be put through a painful and difficult confirmation process. But I have to tell you, what Judge Jackson was put through was well beyond that, there was verbal abuse the anger, the constant interruptions, most vile baseless assertions and accusations,” Biden said.

“In the face of it all, Judge Jackson showed the incredible character and integrity she possesses,” he added.

Jackson said that in private meetings with 97 senators, “we had substantive and engaging conversations about my approach to judging and about the role of judges in the constitutional system we all love.”

“As a brief aside,” she added, “I will note that these are subjects about which I care deeply.”

The White House staged the outdoor event even as it confronts a series of Covid-19 cases in Biden’s orbit, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who tested positive after joining the president this week at a pair of indoor events.

The White House has said Biden doesn’t qualify as a close contact of Pelosi and that officials expect Biden would experience a mild case if he ultimately does test positive.

Read more: Pelosi’s Infection Brings Covid-19 Closer Than Ever to Biden

Harris’s communications director, Jamal Simmons, recently contracted Covid-19 and she is considered a close contact. A White House official said she tested negative on Friday and would only wear a mask at the ceremony while near other people.

The Jackson event has drawn comparisons to a ceremony that former President Donald Trump held at the White House on Sept. 26, 2020 to announce his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert -- Anthony Fauci -- later referred to the event, which took place before vaccines were widely available and included indoor activities, as a “superspreader event.”

A number of the roughly 150 attendees at Coney Barrett’s ceremony -- many of whom didn’t mask or socially distance -- tested positive for Covid-19 in the following days, including Trump, who spent three days in the hospital before recovering from the virus.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday disputed comparisons to the Barrett event.

“Well, one, at that point in time, vaccines weren’t available. People were not vaccinated. It certainly puts us in a different space. This event is also going to be outside tomorrow,” Psaki told reporters.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net;
Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.net;
Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net

Kathleen Hunter

© 2022 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.