Senators confirm 1st Biden nominee for appellate court

FILE - In this April 28, 2021 file photo, Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate is expected to narrowly confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson for the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. She is widely expected to land on President Joe Biden's short list should a Supreme Court vacancy arise. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool via AP)
FILE - In this April 28, 2021 file photo, Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate is expected to narrowly confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson for the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. She is widely expected to land on President Joe Biden's short list should a Supreme Court vacancy arise. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool via AP)

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Monday confirmed the first appellate court judge of President Joe Biden's tenure, elevating a judge with strong prospects of landing on the president's short list should a Supreme Court vacancy arise.

Senators voted 53-44 to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the nation's second-mostpowerful court. She replaces Merrick Garland, who vacated the seat to become U.S. attorney general.

Biden has promised to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court and many view Jackson as a leading contender. She has written nearly 600 opinions as a district judge in Washington, worked as a federal public defender and served as vice chair on the commission that sets the guidelines judges consult when sentencing federal offenders.

The White House has sought to emphasize diversity in background, race and gender with his first batch of judicial nominations. Last week, the Senate confirmed the nation's first federal Muslim judge, Zahid Quraishi, to serve as a district court judge in New Jersey.

Quraishi's first day on the job at a New York law firm was Sept. 11, 2001. He would go on to join the Army's legal arm and served two deployments in Iraq.

The Senate has also confirmed Regina Rodriguez as a district judge in Colorado and Julien Neals as a district judge in New Jersey.

Democrats are mindful that former President Donald Trump and a Republican-led Senate installed more than 230 judges on the federal bench, including the three newest Supreme Court justices, with assembly line precision. They're focused on giving Biden some early victories as they mount their own effort to shape the courts.

"Women, especially women of color, have long been underrepresented on the federal bench," said Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "Along with President Biden, the Senate Democratic majority is working quickly to close the gap."

The Senate voted last week to end debate and bring Jackson's nomination to the floor.

Three Republicans -- Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- joined that effort. The three were also the only Republicans to vote for her confirmation Monday.

Sen. Dick Durbin noted that nominations to the D.C.-based circuit court are often controversial because the stakes are so high, with most cases involving the federal government coming before the court. It was noteworthy that Jackson received the support of some Republicans on the committee, said Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"The importance of the circuit cannot be overstated," Durbin said.

Two Republicans, Graham and John Cornyn of Texas, voted with Democrats in advancing her nomination out of the committee by a vote of 13-9. Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican from Iowa, voted no, saying he was not satisfied Jackson would "adhere to the Constitution as originally understood."

Jackson graduated from Harvard Law School and served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. In 2005, she began work as an assistant federal public defender in Washington.

She joined a private firm in 2007 and then served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission beginning in 2010. President Barack Obama nominated her to serve as a federal district judge in 2012, and the Senate confirmed her the following year.

In one of her most high-profile decisions, she ordered former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before Congress in a setback to Trump's effort to keep his top aides from testifying.

Groups supporting her confirmation have cited the need to bring more racial diversity to the federal judiciary. She also exemplifies a push by Biden to nominate more judges with experience representing lower-income people.

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