Fact check: Ketanji Brown Jackson was the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court
The claim: Republicans nominated the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, but she was blocked by Biden
After completing two days of intense questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's name and photo have filled the internet and newspapers alike.
But one Facebook post claims she isn't the historic first she has been presented to be.
A March 25 Facebook post claimed Jackson was not the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court and instead Republicans were responsible for nominating the first Black woman. The post accrued more than 2,000 shares in less than a week.
Text accompanying the image reads: "Fraud: It was Republicans who nominated the 1st Black woman to the SCOTUS & she was BLOCKED & filibustered by... wait for it...... Joe Biden. Media: Crickets."
But this is false. The woman pictured was not nominated to the Supreme Court, and Jackson is the first Black woman to be nominated.
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Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the claim for comment.
Woman pictured wasn't nominated to the Supreme Court
The woman pictured in the Facebook post is Janice Rogers Brown a former justice of the California Supreme Court. Like Jackson, Brown also served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Brown was a D.C. Circuit judge during President George W. Bush's administration, during which there were reports that she was being considered to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Bush, a Republican, ultimately nominated current Justice Samuel Alito instead.
About 17 years later, President Joe Biden announced the Jackson nomination. This was the first time a Black woman was nominated to sit on the Supreme Court.
Biden did not block the nomination of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court
The assertion that Biden blocked Brown from a Supreme Court nomination is wrong, but for a time he did block her confirmation to the D.C. Circuit.
During his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Biden spent many years on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including an eight-year stint as chair ending in 1995.
While Biden was on the committee in November 2003, Brown was nominated to the D.C. Circuit. She was met with a filibuster, garnering only 53 of the 60 votes needed to overcome that. Biden was among the senators that filibustered Brown and other Bush-appointed nominees from 2003 to 2005.
A group called the Gang of 14, a group of 14 senators which included Biden, negotiated the end of that two-year filibuster in 2005.
It wasn't until June of 2005 that Brown was confirmed by the Senate, becoming the second Black woman to serve as D.C. Circuit judge. Biden voted against her nomination.
A month after Brown's confirmation, her name was floated for a Supreme Court vacancy.
Biden said on CBS' Face the Nation in July 2005 that he would not support a Brown nomination to the nation's highest court: "I can assure you that would be a very, very, very difficult fight and she probably would be filibustered."
Bush never named Brown as his nominee. Alito joined the Supreme Court in 2006.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Republicans nominated the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, but she was blocked by Biden. Jackson was the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and she was nominated by Biden.
Our fact-check sources:
- Paste BN, March 24, Judicial philosophy to child porn sentencing: Key takeaways from Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court hearings
- California Supreme Court Historical Society, accessed March 27, Janice Rogers Brown
- New York Times, Oct. 23, 2018, Battling Dementia, Sandra Day O’Connor Leaves Public Life With Plea for Bipartisanship
- U.S. Senate Roll Call votes 109th Congress, accessed March 27
- White House, Feb. 25, Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court announcement
- CNN, Feb. 7, How GOP presidents have sought to make Supreme Court history
- TIME, Feb. 25, The History Behind the First Black Woman Supreme Court Justice Nominee
- U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, accessed March 27, Previous Committee Chairmen
- Associated Press, June 7, 2005, Senate ends 2-year filibuster of judicial nominee
- CBS News, July 3, 2005, Face the Nation transcript (archived)
- New York Times, Jan. 31, 2006, Alito Is Sworn In as Justice After 58-42 Vote to Confirm Him
- Washington Post, July 4, 2005, Filibuster deal puts Democrats in a bind
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