[ti:US Senate Confirms Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court]
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[00:00.04]The United States Senate has confirmed
[00:03.68]Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
[00:09.04]President Joe Biden nominated Jackson,
[00:12.64]a 51-year-old federal appeals court judge, earlier this year.
[00:19.08]She is set to become the first Black woman
[00:22.96]to serve on the high court.
[00:25.20]Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised the vote,
[00:30.84]calling it "a wonderful day...for the Supreme Court
[00:34.88]and for the United States of America."
[00:39.40]Jackson will join the high court
[00:42.28]when Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer.
[00:47.16]She watched the vote on television with Biden
[00:51.28]at the White House on Thursday.
[00:53.52]They celebrated after the nomination was approved.
[00:58.72]During her Senate confirmation hearings,
[01:02.72]Jackson spoke of her parents' struggles with racial segregation.
[01:09.24]She said her "path was clearer" because of civil rights laws
[01:15.56]passed in the 1960s before she was born.
[01:20.32]She attended Harvard University in Massachusetts,
[01:25.92]worked as a public defender
[01:28.92]and was a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
[01:34.80]Jackson will be the third Black person to serve on the court,
[01:40.20]after Justices Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas.
[01:45.36]She will be the fourth woman on the court of nine Justices.
[01:50.76]The three other women who have served
[01:53.88]are Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett.
[02:01.92]The Senate confirmed Biden's choice by a vote of 53 to 47.
[02:09.60]Three Republican Senators joined
[02:12.44]all of the Senate Democrats to confirm Jackson.
[02:17.48]Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
[02:24.24]and Mitt Romney of Utah gave her their support.
[02:29.16]Collins said she was dissatisfied with the confirmation process.
[02:35.08]She called the process "broken."
[02:38.52]The court currently has six conservative members and three liberal members.
[02:45.28]The justices have lifetime appointments.
[02:48.56]The lifetime terms are meant to ease political influence
[02:53.28]on the justices' decisions.
[02:56.12]Jackson faced many questions about her record
[03:00.56]and her ideas about the law from the Senate Judiciary committee.
[03:07.04]The committee has 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans on it.
[03:12.80]Republicans questioned Jackson's sentencing record
[03:17.48]during her confirmation hearings.
[03:20.04]Several of the senators said she gave sentences below the federal guidelines
[03:27.20]for people found guilty of having illegal sexual material showing children.
[03:34.88]Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that Jackson
[03:39.56]"never got tough once in this area."
[03:43.60]But supporters of Jackson said she was in line
[03:47.36]with other judges in her decisions.
[03:50.04]Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey,
[03:54.84]said he felt emotional as Jackson spoke to the committee.
[03:59.00]He said he saw "my ancestors and yours" in her image.
[04:04.84]I'm Ashley Thompson.
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