Supreme Court holds investiture ceremony for Ketanji Brown Jackson

By Lawrence Hurley, NBC

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attended the ceremonial event for Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.

The Supreme Court on Friday hosted a formal investiture ceremony for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the court, with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both in attendance.

Jackson, appointed by Biden to replace fellow liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired in June, was sworn in in July and has already been participating fully in the court’s activities. As such, Friday’s event was purely a formality. She is now part of the three-member liberal minority on the court, which is dominated, 6-3, by conservatives.

Speaking later in the day at a Library of Congress event, Jackson referred to the historic nature of her appointment, stressing the importance of representation for Black people, women and other groups historically excluded from power in the U.S.

“People from all walks of life approach me with what I can only describe as a profound sense of pride and what feels to me like renewed ownership. I can see it in their eyes. I can hear it in their voices. They stare at me as if to say, ‘Look at what we’ve done,’” she said.

“They say, ‘This is what we can accomplish if we put our minds to it.’ They might not use those words, but I get the message. They’re calling on the ancestors, hearkening back to history and claiming their stake at last. They are saying to me, in essence, ‘You go, girl,’” she added.

Read about the event.

Two years ago, Vice President Kamala Harris similarly made history.

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