'Without Fear or Favour': US SC Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's Hearing Begins

On the first day of her hearing, Ketanji Brown Jackson, the nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States, promised on Monday, 21 March, that she would function independently and adjudicate cases "without fear or favour".

If her nomination is confirmed, Jackson will be the first black woman in the US Supreme Court.

She was nominated by President Joe Biden and will face four days of questioning from both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.

"I know that my role as a judge is a limited one — that the Constitution empowers me only to decide cases and controversies that are properly presented. And I know that my judicial role is further constrained by careful adherence to precedent," Jackson remarked during the hearing, reported Washington Post.

She has served as a federal judge for nine years.

Jackson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, after which she attended Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude. She was also an editor of the Harvard Law Review, according to her profile published by the White House.

She served as a clerk for Stephen Breyer, who has served as an associate justice of the apex court since 1994 (nominated by President Bill Clinton).

She then went on to work as a public defender after which she was nominated by President Obama to serve as the Vice Chair of the US Sentencing Commission in 2009.

Obama then nominated her to be a district court judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia in 2012.

Since June 2021, she has served on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

During her hearing, Jackson introduced her parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, who had experienced firsthand racial segregation during their lives.

"My parents taught me that, unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, such that if I worked hard and believed in myself, in America I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be," Jackson said.