- Obama praised Joe Biden's historic Supreme Court pick, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
- "Judge Jackson has already inspired young Black women like my daughters to set their sights higher," Obama said in a statement.
- Obama nominated Jackson to the federal court in 2012.
Former President Barack Obama praised President Joe Biden's historic Supreme Court nominee, underlying what Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's selection means to "young Black women like my daughters."
"Judge Jackson has already inspired young Black women like my daughters to set their sights higher, and her confirmation will help them believe they can be anything they want to be," Obama said in a statement.
If confirmed, Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the high court. She would also be just the third Black woman to serve on a body that once defended segregation before the landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of education.
Obama nominated Jackson to the US Sentencing Commission in 2009. Three years later, he tapped her to become a federal court judge.
He also pointed out that Jackson clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and noted similarities between the two.
"As a protégé of Justice Breyer, Judge Jackson earned a reputation for pragmatism and consensus building. It's part of why I nominated her twice – first as a district judge, and then to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where she earned praise from both Democrats and Republicans," Obama said.
Jackson was confirmed to the sentencing commission and later the federal court via voice vote, a procedural step which means individual senators were not required to record a position on her nominations. Voice votes are historically used for uncontroversial nominees and lower court judges, though the latter practice has waned in recent years.
She was narrowly confirmed to the DC Circuit Court last year, a body that is widely viewed as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. Three Republican senators supported her confirmation then, though Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of those votes, was an enthusiastic supporter of another judge on Biden's shortlist and sounded less convinced on supporting Jackson again.
Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama have often invoked their children when speaking about their own racial identities and their historic lives. Obama famously declared that Trayvon Martin "could have been my son" after he was killed in 2013. Michelle Obama spoke about what it was like to be a Black woman living in a White House that was partially built by enslaved people during her speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
"That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves," she said. "And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn."