Ketanji Brown Jackson

Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson (born Ketanji Onyika Brown; kəˈtɑːndʒi ; born September 14, 1970) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Joe Biden on February 25, 2022, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn into office that same year. She is the first black woman and the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court. Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Miami, Florida. She received her undergraduate and legal education at Harvard University, where served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and would clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer, whose seat she later assumed on the Supreme Court. From 2010 to 2014, Jackson was the vice chairwoman of the United States Sentencing Commission. In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed her as a district judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where she served until 2021. Since 2016, Jackson has been a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers. Jackson was born on September 14, 1970, in Washington, D.C., to parents who had been educated at historically black colleges and universities. Her father, Johnny Brown, attended the University of Miami School of Law and ultimately became the chief attorney for the Miami-Dade County School Board. Her mother, Ellery, was school principal at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. One of her uncles, Calvin Ross, served as the chief of the Miami Police Department. Jackson grew up in Miami and attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School. She distinguished herself as a champion debater, winning the national oratory title at the National Catholic Forensic League championships in New Orleans during her senior year. She later recalled her experience with high school debate as "an experience that I can say without hesitation was the one activity that best prepared me for future success in law and in life." In 1988, Jackson graduated from Palmetto as senior class president.