President Joe Biden plans on Friday to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson, a federal appellate judge, to become the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, according to two sources familiar with the process.
The announcement of Jackson, expected to take place at the White House, will tee up a confirmation battle in the closely divided Senate.
The timing of Biden’s announcement has been in flux because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Other contenders for the nomination were J. Michelle Childs, a district court judge in South Carolina, and Leondra Kruger, a justice on the California Supreme Court.
Jackson would replace liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who she once clerked for. Breyer announced in January his intention to step down.
The Senate voted 53-44 last year to confirm Jackson after Biden nominated her to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, with three Republican senators backing her.
At Jackson’s confirmation hearing last year, Republicans questioned her on whether race plays a role in her approach to deciding cases. She said it did not.
The Senate previously confirmed her as a federal district judge, a job she held for eight years.
If confirmed to the top court, Jackson would be the third Black justice, after Thurgood Marshall (1967-1991) and Clarence Thomas, the conservative jurist who has been on the bench since 1991.
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority that will be unchanged by the new appointment.w
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