Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan
The Writer Christine de Pizan at Her Desk

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Confirmed: Ketanji Brown-Jackson

Ketanji Brown-Jackson (confirmed 7 April 2022 as U.S. Supreme Court Justice)


Ketanji Brown-Jackson, currently serving as Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has just been confirmed as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Photo by Greg Nash, The Hill
Judge Brown-Jackson will be the 116th justice to serve on the court, the first Black woman to serve on the court in its 233-year history. (And, by the way, she is one of only 70 Black women to have served as federal judges--of 3,843 federal judges in the history of the U.S.)

She will follow in the footsteps of the very few but distinguished women to have served on the court, including Sandra Day O'Connor, (appointed 1981) Ruth Bader Ginsburg (appointed 1993), Sonia Sotomayor (appointed 2009). and Elena Kagan (appointed 2010).

Interviewed by Elena Kagan in 2010, Ruth Bader Ginsburg reminded her--and all of us--that "we should appreciate the women on whose shoulders we stand." Many young women and girls will find their strength and inspiration in Ketanji Brown-Jackson.

Photo taken in 2010, on the occasion of
Elena Kagan's investiture,
(U.S. Supreme Court website)

Update, 30 June 2022: In an otherwise bleak period for the U.S. Supreme Court, one bit of light. Today Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the 116th justice of the court, and the first Black woman to serve on the bench.

Here she is, sworn in by retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, with her husband holding the Bibles as she takes the oath.


Photo by Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States