Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes the first African-American woman on the US Supreme Court.

The United States has its first African-American female judge on the highest court in the country. Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in this Thursday, June 30, to her position in this institution after being confirmed by the Senate in April, and after the retirement of magistrate Stephen Breyer, 83.

With the election of the new progressive justice of the Supreme Court, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, fulfilled his campaign promise to nominate an African-American woman to occupy a position on the highest Court that has been composed exclusively of men for almost two centuries. whites. The same ones who declared African Americans unworthy of citizenship and who supported segregation.

Now, the 51-year-old federal judge is making history by becoming the first African-American woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court in its 232-year history and is the first former public defender to serve as a judge.

Jackson swore allegiance to the Constitution before the president of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, and then swore to fulfill the obligations of his office before his predecessor, Stephen Breyer, who had already announced six months ago his intention to retire when the judicial course was over, then almost 28 years as a magistrate of the High Court.

“With all my heart, I accept the solemn responsibility to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and administer justice without fear or favor, so help me God,” Jackson said in a statement released by the court. “I am truly grateful to be a part of the promise of our great Nation. I express my sincere thanks to all my new colleagues for their warm and gracious welcome.”

Glynda Carr, president of Higher Heights for America, an organization that advocates for the growth of political power for black women, said the timing of Jackson’s inauguration was bittersweet.

“Though we celebrate her today, one black woman or a cohort of black women alone cannot save this democracy. We are part of it and we are doing our job, our part. She is going to forever reshape and shape that court. But she is just part of the work that has to happen in the future,” Carr said.

What changes in the Supreme with the arrival of Jackson?

The Supreme will not change its ideological composition with the arrival of Jackson. They will continue to have six conservative and three progressive judges. The court Jackson is joining is the most conservative since the 1930s.

What changes is that with the arrival of Jackson and for the first time in history, there are already four women out of the nine judges of the Supreme Court. The magistrate joins two other women on the progressive side (from a 6-3 conservative court): Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, on the progressive side. And with Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the conservative wing.

Jackson arrives at a time when the Court occupies all the attention

The arrival of the former public defender and federal judge, since 2013, of a Court of Appeals, occurs just when the highest judicial instance occupies all the attention of the country after having issued three historic rulings in recent days:

1- It annulled the federal protection of the right to abortion that had been in force since 1973, protected by the judgment known as “Roe v. Wade”.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week found that a majority of Americans (57%) have a negative view of the Court after the abortion decision, a significant change from earlier in the month when a narrow majority had a positive view. .

two- He upheld the right to bear arms in public as the country grapples with a rise in gun crime, especially mass shootings at schools.

3- And one of the last two rulings this Thursday was in favor of restricting the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate the emissions of polluting gases emitted by power plants, siding with coal mining companies. , a blow to the fight against climate change from President Biden’s agenda.

And the second sentence of the day was the authorization for President Biden to suppress the “Stay in Mexico” program, an immigration policy established by his predecessor, Donald Trump (2017-2021), which forces asylum seekers to wait for a resolution your case outside the United States.

Who is the new Justice of the Court Ketanji Brown Jackson?

Jackson, born in Washington in 1970, attended Harvard University as an undergraduate in law schooland was a member of the US Sentencing Commission, the agency that develops federal sentencing policy, before becoming a federal judge in 2013.

The new judge of the superior judicial body of the Nation is, now, number 116, sixth woman and third African-American person to serve on the Supreme Court since its founding in 1789. She is also the second youngest member of the Supreme Court after of Barrett, 50, and will become part of the liberal bloc on a court with a 6-3 conservative majority.

“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States,” Jackson said at an April 8 event to celebrate her confirmation. “But we have, all of us, all of us have.”

Jackson will be able to start work immediately, but the court finished most of its work on Thursday (the Supreme Court’s final day of business until October), aside from the occasional emergency appeals. That will give the magistrate time to settle down and familiarize herself with the roughly two dozen cases the court has already agreed to hear starting in October, as well as hundreds of appeals that will pile up over the summer.

With Reuters, AP, EFE and AFP