The Senate voted 53-47 on April 7 to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Jackson was nominated by President Joe Biden in February to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Now that she is confirmed, Jackson will be the first Black woman, as well as the first public defender, on the high court.
Digital Anchor Nicole Ellis spoke with PBS NewsHour National Correspondent John Yang about what her confirmation means, how the senators voted and what happens next before taking the bench.
Watch the conversation in the live player above.
Biden's nomination of Jackson fulfilled a campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the court and was also part of a desire by the White House to bring forth judges with "professional diversity"– lawyers who had been civil rights attorneys or criminal defense lawyers who are unlike the government litigants or prosecutors who are often tapped for the bench.
READ MORE: How having a former public defender on the Supreme Court could be 'revolutionary'
Jackson is also only the third Black justice ever nominated to the Supreme Court and only the sixth woman. She will join three other women, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett to the bench.
But she will join the court when Breyer officially steps down this summer. As a so-called "Justice-in-Waiting," Yang said she will be in a sort of limbo period until Breyer leaves the court.
"This is a bit of an unprecedented situation, according to Supreme Court historians, in that she has a long wait," Yang said. "Justice Breyer said he will step down once the current term ends, which is the end of June or perhaps early July. She won't be able to take the judicial oath until then."
Jackson currently sits on the D.C. Court of Appeals. Yang said she could continue to sit there, but that it will be unlikely because of potential conflicts of interest in cases coming before her on the appellate court that might later be heard before the Supreme Court.
Three Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah — joined all 50 Democrats in voting in favor of Jackon's confirmation on Thursday. Yang said this vote was "fairly narrow."
"It used to be the Supreme Court nominations were not terribly partisan," he said. "Antonin Scalia, who was a hero to the right and a villain to the left during his years on the Supreme Court, he was confirmed by a unanimous vote. It really has become, more recently, partisan."
The last justice confirmed with broad bipartisan support was Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005. Since then, confirmations have happened along largely partisan lines.
Former president Donald Trump nominated three judges to the bench during his term, all were met with resistance from most Democrats. Similarly, two of former President Barack Obama's nominees were approved only among mostly partisan lines. A third, Merrick Garland, saw his nomination as justice languish when he was refused a hearing by Republicans who controlled the Senate.