Obama congratulates Jackson on Supreme Court nomination

Former President Obama congratulated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on her recent nomination to the Supreme Court in a statement released Friday.

“Judge Jackson has already inspired young Black women like my daughters to set their sights higher,” Obama wrote. “And her confirmation will help them believe they can be anything they want to be.”

Jackson, who would replace current Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, was nominated Friday in an announcement from the White House.

“Judge Jackson is an exceptionally qualified nominee as well as an historic nominee,” read the White House’s statement.

Jackson’s nomination follows a long-term promise from President Biden to put forward the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.

“As a protégé of Justice Breyer, Judge Jackson earned a reputation for pragmatism and consensus building,” Obama said in his statement. “It’s part of why I nominated her twice – first as a district judge, and then to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where she earned praise from both Democrats and Republicans.”

He added: “Like Justice Breyer, Judge Jackson understands that the law isn’t just about abstract theory. It’s about people’s lives.”

Jackson, who has been praised by both Democrats and Republicans after the nomination announcement, has spent eight months on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Before her role in the D.C. Circuit, she was a federal district judge in D.C. for eight years.