President Joe Biden is expected to announce Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday afternoon.
According to PEOPLE, Jackson will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Jackson will replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who said in January he will retire from the court.
Explaining the choice, a White House official said Jackson is seen as “one of our nation’s brightest legal minds” and noted her career ranges from clerking for Breyer himself to serving as an appellate judge and on the U.S. Sentencing Commission as well as a federal public defender. Biden has made a point with his judicial nominees to draw from those with criminal defense experience.
Born in Washington, D.C., but raised in Miami, Jackson graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She clerked for outgoing Justice Breyer for a term that began in 1999; he called her “brilliant” and praised her “common sense” and “thoughtfulness,” according to SCOTUS Blog.