Soon, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice. Or, she certainly should be.
Her historic appointment moved front and center on Monday with the start of Jackson's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
President Joe Biden nominated Jackson, currently a federal appellate judge in Washington, D.C., in February to the Supreme Court post being vacated by retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
In the time since, she has been meeting privately with individual senators in the first phase of the confirmation process.
That has happened with little public notice as news coverage has understandably focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what role the U.S and NATO should have to help Ukraine preserve its democracy.
That changed with Jackson's hearings, which have been televised gavel-to-gavel on C-SPAN and reported elsewhere.
Finally, Jackson will get the attention she deserves not just because she would be the first Black woman ever to serve on the nation's high court but because of her extraordinary credentials and the broadened perspective she would bring to the court.
Educated at Harvard College and Harvard Law School, she has served as a court clerk to several jurists, including Justice Breyer, in the federal system and been a lawyer in private practice.
She has also been a federal public defender, vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, judge on the U.S. District Court in D.C. and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Notably, the last three posts required Senate confirmation, which came in each case with bipartisan support.
Her latest confirmation hearing opened Monday with introductory statements from the 22 committee members as well as brief opening remarks from the nominee.
The senators revealed in 10-minute speeches what they wanted to hear from Jackson in the following days, with many of the Democrats showing whole-hearted support for her confirmation and some Republicans raising questions about Jackson's record as a former U.S. district court judge and the hundreds of opinions she wrote during that time.
In contrast, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said Monday was "a day of joy" because of the nomination of the Supreme Court's first Black woman justice.
This is, he said, "an America where anybody can achieve anything not because of the color of their skin but because of the content of their character."
Among Jackson's stronger critics was Arkansas' junior senator, Tom Cotton, who spoke of the "lawlessness" of the Biden administration and the need for a judiciary independent of the president.
He particularly wants to know Judge Jackson's views on "packing the court," an issue under recent review by a presidential commission. Cotton said he hoped any court nominee would condemn increasing the size of the nine-member court.
Notably, several Republicans also used part of their time to promise that the hearings would be respectful, unlike the hearings for former President Donald Trump's nominees to the court.
No Republican senator will unleash on her the kind of late, personal character attacks Justice Brett Kavanaugh endured, promised Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
That didn't mean she would not get tough questions on issues, like whether her trial court rulings reflect that she had been "soft on crime" or why liberal groups are strongly supporting her confirmation.
Sure enough, in Tuesday's session, with committee members allowed 30 minutes each to ask questions of Jackson, the day's questioning featured pointed criticism from Republicans and effusive praise from Democrats.
This time, the judge got to respond directly to each senator and further define herself to the public.
She came off as calm and collected, respectful with all, including those senators likely to vote against her confirmation.
Follow-up questioning was expected to focus on her record as a trial judge and her judicial philosophy.
The hearings will continue today and are available online at C-SPAN.org. The full Senate is aiming for a vote on Jackson's confirmation before Easter.
That vote is almost certainly going to split along party lines with maybe just a handful of Republicans joining the Democratic majority in confirming Judge Jackson.
One last perspective from the opening day of her confirmation hearing: Judge Thomas Griffith, a retired federal appellate judge and former colleague of Jackson's who helped introduce Jackson to the Senate committee, offered a description of what is required to be a Supreme Court justice.
"It takes a jurist of high character, keen intellect, deep legal knowledge and broad experience," he said, then proceeded to explain how Jackson fits the criteria.
That's also why Biden selected her and why she should be confirmed as just the 116th member of the U.S. Supreme Court who also happens to be a Black woman.