South Florida supporters praise Biden’s pick of first Black woman for U.S. Supreme Court
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Miami’s Ketanji Brown Jackson gets historic Supreme Court nomination
President Joe Biden nominated federal appeals Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court, a historic pick which will make the Miami Palmetto High School graduate the first Black woman on the nation’s high court if she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
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Friends and supporters of Miami-raised Ketanji Brown Jackson rejoiced over her historic nomination Friday as the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying she would bring a strong intellect, fair mind and distinct perspective to the nation’s highest court.
Brown Jackson, a federal appeals court judge who would replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, “is a great choice for the country as a whole,” said Trelvis Randolph, president of the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association, the legal association named for the pioneering Black Miami federal judge.
“President Biden made a conscious effort to find someone who was capable, qualified and competent to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court,” Randolph said. “We are fortunate that the president decided to look for excellence in spaces that would otherwise be forgotten.”
“This is really a big moment for her and for the rest of us who she is representing,” said Miami-Dade County Judge Chiaka Ihekwaba, one of only 11 Black jurists in the county. “Our own ‘homegrown’ Supreme Court nominee. This is truly exciting news!”
Brown Jackson, 51, grew up in a family of educators in Miami-Dade County where she excelled as a student and debater at Miami Palmetto Senior High School. She became a lawyer, assistant federal public defender, U.S. Sentencing Commission member, federal judge and appellate court judge — a career that no other justice has had on the current Supreme Court.
“In elevating Judge Jackson, the Senate would not just add a supremely capable jurist to the high court,” said Miami attorney Stephen Rosenthal, who went to Palmetto High, Harvard College and Harvard Law School with her. “In ‘KBJ’ they can also give the American people an inspirational figure who truly embodies the American dream.”
In his legal blog, Miami attorney David O. Markus, who as a high school student in the 1980s debated against Brown Jackson and followed her to Harvard Law School, flashed a series of headlines about some of her milestones:
“Ketanji Brown Jackson to be SCOTUS nominee. Woohooo! This is great news. Miami Debate. Palmetto High School. First African American woman. First former public defender. And first Floridian!”
In her teen years at Palmetto High, Brown Jackson already knew her life goals.
“I want to go into law and eventually have a judicial appointment,” she was quoted in the 1988 Palmetto High yearbook Echo, in a prescient piece naming her to the graduation class Hall of Fame.
Her own family history during the 1980s in Miami strongly influenced the legal path she pursued as a lawyer and judge, Brown Jackson has acknowledged in prior Senate confirmation hearings. She was raised in suburban comfort in the Cutler Bay area by two educators, including a mother who served as a high school principal and a father who taught history and later became the chief lawyer for the Miami-Dade County School Board.
“They are in Florida right now, and I know they could not be more proud,” Brown Jackson said of her parents in a statement delivered after President Biden announced her nomination at the White House.
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 11:46 AM.
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