The Senate is expected to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court as the first Black female justice
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin praised Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s qualification and the historic nature of her Supreme Court nomination during remarks on the Senate floor ahead of the final vote.
“Judge Jackson’s confirmation will be a glass-shattering achievement for America,” Durbin said.
Durbin went on to discuss America’s history of the enslavement of Black people and the limited rights of women.
“Consider this moment in history. When the Supreme Court first met in this building February of 1801, there were one million slaves in this nation, a nation of five million people. This very building was built with the labor of enslaved people and at the time the court met, neither Black Americans nor white women had the constitutional guarantee right to vote. Women had no place in that first Supreme Court chamber and Black women would only enter to clean it in the dark of the night. We know what followed. America’s battle to end slavery saw a bloody civil war and decades of efforts to break down racial barriers and the efforts continue to this today,” he said.
Durbin continued, “And our struggle to enfranchise and empower women did not end with the 19th Amendment over 102 years ago — it continues to this day as well, as we strive to give our daughters the same opportunities we give our sons.”
He went on to say, “This confirmation of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court honors the history that has come before it, it honors the struggles of the past, of the men and women who waged them. And this confirmation draws America one step closer, one step to healing out nation. One step closer to a more perfect union.”
