Biden to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court

President Joe Biden will nominate federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday to replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, which would make her the first black woman on the high court's bench should she be confirmed by the Senate.

Breyer announced his retirement last month after 28 years on the Supreme Court, effective when the current term ends this summer. That paved the opportunity for Biden to fulfill his 2020 campaign promise of nominating a black woman as a Supreme Court justice.

Jackson, 51, was known to be on a short list of contenders the White House considered for the role and exhibits a unique background, having been a federal trial court judge for eight years without experience as a prosecutor or major corporate lawyer.

Before she became a judge, Jackson worked as a public defender representing indigent criminal defendants and served as vice chairwoman on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. She studied government at Harvard University, graduating in 1992, and is an alumna of Harvard Law School.

Last June, the Biden administration selected Jackson to succeed Attorney General Merrick Garland as a judge before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; she recently delivered her first opinion on the bench in the AFL-CIO v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, siding with federal labor unions.