U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed to the federal court by President Barack Obama in 2013, will be nominated to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court, one of the most high-profile in the nation, has long been viewed as a steppingstone for Supreme Court nominees.
Biden has promised to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court for the first time in U.S. history, and Jackson’s name has appeared in the mix of leading candidates. She was on Obama’s short list after Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016. Biden’s first opportunity to follow through on the promise would likely come if Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, 82, retires sometime before the 2022 midterm election.