Jackson, Ketanji Onyika Brown

Jackson, Ketanji Onyika Brown, American lawyer, jurist, and Supreme Court Justice, b. Washington, D.C., 1970; grad. Harvard-Radcliff (B.A., cum laude, 1992), Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1996). Jackson served several clerkships, including for Justice Stephen G. Breyer during Supreme Court's 1999 term. She has been in private practice, at the U.S. Sentencing Commission (2003–05; vice-chair and commissioner,2010–14), and a Federal public defender (2005–07). Appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (2013–21) by President Barak H. Obama. President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Ciruit in 2021 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 2022 after the announced retirement of of Justice Breyer. She took her seat as the first African-American woman on the court in June, 2022.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies