The Senate Judiciary Committee has opened historic confirmation hearings for President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, to fill retiring Justice Stephen Breyer’s upcoming vacancy. Judge Jackson currently sits on D.C.’s federal appellate court and is the first Black woman nominated to serve on the Supreme Court, and the first former public defender. Judge Jackson defended her record during her opening remarks.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: “I have been a judge for nearly a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously. I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath.”