VIDEO: Kaine Delivers Floor Speech on His Support for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

For video of Kaine’s remarks, click here

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine spoke on the Senate floor to discuss his support for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed, Judge Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

“The nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will make history. She'll be the first African American woman on the court. And she'll move a court that had never had a woman member when I started [law school] to a court where four of the nine members are women,”  Kaine said during his remarks. “What powerful evidence of the capacity we have as a nation to come closer and closer to the equality ideal that was articulated as our moral North Star in the opening phrase of the Declaration of Independence, drafted by a Virginian in 1776. So, I celebrate the history-making nature of this appointment, but it's not the reason for my support.”

“I support Judge Jackson's nomination because of her stellar academic credentials, her prestigious judicial clerkships, her dedicated service as an attorney and member of the United States Sentencing Commission, her well-respected tenure as a federal trial and apellate judge, and the multiple attestations that she has received attributing to her fairness and to her character,” Kaine continued.

Senator Kaine met with Judge Jackson on April 4. Kaine and a bipartisan group of his colleagues previously voted to confirm Judge Jackson to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2021.

Judge Jackson has also served as a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and Vice Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. She was also a public defender and clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer, who she will replace if confirmed.

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