Jackson confirmed to the Supreme Court

Kevin Daley reports,

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Thursday, fulfilling President Joe Biden's pledge to base the nomination on identity and place the first black woman on the Supreme Court.

The vote was 53-47 with 3 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in support of her confirmation. The judge's confirmation was not seriously in doubt after swing voters in the chamber announced they would support Jackson, even if the process was bumpier than the early signs suggested.

Jackson will have ample opportunity to assert herself next term if she wishes to do so. Starting in October, the Court will run a veritable gauntlet of social controversies by hearing cases involving anti-Asian bias at Harvard, a Christian website designer who declined to set up wedding websites for same-sex couples, the application of the Voting Rights Act to legislative redistricting, and the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal statute prized by tribes. Other marquee cases are lurking on the Supreme Court's docket and may yet be set for argument.

New justices are always carefully watched, and Jackson will be studied more carefully still, in part due to the historic nature of her confirmation and given her limited record as an appeals court judge. One initial question is whether Jackson will lunge into the thrust-and-parry of Supreme Court business or be more circumspect. Some new members, like Justice Neil Gorsuch, asserted themselves immediately through aggressive questioning at oral argument and prolific production of separate opinions. Other new arrivals, like Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, have kept a lower profile, deferring to senior members during questioning and seldom writing separately.

It's not clear when Jackson will join her new colleagues at the High Court. Breyer's retirement is effective on the confirmation of his successor, but the Court's annual summer hiatus provides a natural transition window for the new justice. And Breyer will likely have outstanding business to finish before leaving the Court at the end of June.

Read more here: https://freebeacon.com/courts/senate-confirms-ketanji-brown-jackson-to-the-supreme-court/