Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in as Supreme Court Justice as Breyer retires

Tim Balk

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in Thursday as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, replacing the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, who administered a judicial oath at her ceremony.

Jackson, a 51-year-old jurist who was raised in Miami, was confirmed by the Senate in April after Breyer announced his plans to step down. Breyer, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, spent 27 years as a consistent liberal voice on the court.

Chief Justice John Roberts administered Jackson’s constitutional oath at an afternoon ceremony in the Supreme Court’s West Conference Room. “I am pleased to welcome Justice Jackson to the court and to our common calling,” Roberts said to applause, before shaking Jackson’s hand.

In this image from video provided by the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts administers the Constitutional Oath to Ketanji Brown Jackson as her husband Patrick Jackson holds the Bible at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022.
In this image from video provided by the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts administers the Constitutional Oath to Ketanji Brown Jackson as her husband Patrick Jackson holds the Bible at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022.


In this image from video provided by the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts administers the Constitutional Oath to Ketanji Brown Jackson as her husband Patrick Jackson holds the Bible at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022.

Her arrival is not expected to alter the ideological balance of the court, which has had a 6-to-3 conservative majority since Justice Amy Coney Barrett replaced the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020.

But it still served as a watershed moment — a long overdue shattering of a glass ceiling for Black women in America. And it came as a potent victory for President Biden, who made a 2020 campaign pledge to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court.

In New York, Gov. Hochul, a Democrat, offered congratulations to the court’s new member, predicting on Twitter that Jackson will “serve with an unshakeable commitment to equal justice and the rights of all Americans.”

And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, tweeted a message of praise directed at Jackson: “You are brilliant, beloved, and belong on the Supreme Court.”

In this image provided by the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer poses for a photo with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022.
In this image provided by the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer poses for a photo with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022.


In this image provided by the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer poses for a photo with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022.

Jackson joins a court that has seen its popularity sinking in recent years, according to polls, dogged by growing accusations that its decisions are tainted by politics.

The court just completed a historically contentious term in which it delivered lightning-rod decisions voiding New York’s concealed carry handgun law and, most momentously, overruling the half-century-old Roe v. Wade decision that affirmed a constitutional right to abortion.

Breyer joined the court’s three-member liberal bloc in dissent in both cases.

The professorial 83-year-old justice revealed in January that he intended to retire in the summer, and the White House rushed to find a replacement to plug into the right-leaning court.

Jackson, who clerked for Breyer two decades ago, escaped a Supreme Court confirmation process that has become a sort of political bloodsport in bitterly partisan Washington.

She received the Senate’s backing by a 53-to-47 vote. A trio of moderate Republicans signed on in support, joining every Democrat in the chamber.

In this image provided by the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signs the Oaths of Office at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022, as Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts watches.
In this image provided by the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signs the Oaths of Office at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022, as Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts watches.


In this image provided by the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signs the Oaths of Office at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022, as Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts watches.

Breyer said in a letter to Biden dated Wednesday that his retirement would begin at noon on Thursday. “It has been my great honor to participate as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the Rule of Law,” Breyer wrote.

Jackson was sworn in minutes after noon on Thursday.

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, she served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit before rising to the nation’s top court.

On Thursday, she became the 116th justice on the Supreme Court, its sixth woman and third Black member.

In this image from video provided by the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson smiles after she took the Judicial Oath from retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, left, and the Constitutional Oath from Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022. At right is her husband Patrick Jackson.


In this image from video provided by the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson smiles after she took the Judicial Oath from retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, left, and the Constitutional Oath from Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 30, 2022. At right is her husband Patrick Jackson.

Four of the six women are currently on the nine-member court: Jackson, Barrett, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. Her arrival also suggests that the court’s entire liberal bloc will now be made up of women, while all but one of the conservative members are men.

The move by the conservative bloc to unwind Roe v. Wade delighted Republicans and some religious groups, but also unleashed an outpouring of outrage about health care access for women, opening the door for about half the states in the U.S. to issue broad bans on abortion.

Still, liberals found hope in Jackson’s ascension.

“Finally, some good news for the Supreme Court,” tweeted Mayor Adams, a Democrat. “The cause of justice has been set back in the last few days, but today’s historic swearing-in of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is a reminder that progress will always win in the end.”

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