CNN
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The formal investiture of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Supreme Court’s newest justice, will be Friday morning, with court announcing Monday details about the event.
The investiture is a purely ceremonial event that will not be broadcast publicly. The Supreme Court will meet for it in a special sitting at 10 a.m. ET Friday.
Although Jackson has not yet taken the bench for oral arguments, the necessary oaths were administered last spring, and she has been working and casting votes on emergency applications throughout the summer.
Courtroom attendance on Friday is by invitation only, and no cameras are allowed in the court. Jackson will sit in the historic John Marshall Bench Chair at the beginning of the ceremony.
After the ceremony, Chief Justice John Roberts, Jackson and Jackson’s husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, will be available for photographs on the plaza, although no press questions are allowed.
The new term begins October 3.
Jackson is joining the bench as the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court. She was confirmed by the Senate in April in a 53-47 vote, with three Senate Republicans joining Democrats to approve her nomination.
President Joe Biden named Jackson to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced in January he was leaving the court. A Harvard Law School graduate, Jackson clerked for Breyer.
Her addition to the court won’t change its ideological leanings. But she is also making history as the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court; the last justice with extensive experience serving criminal defendants was Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Jackson did stints in private practice in addition to her time in the public defenders office in DC. She was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2012 to the federal court in DC, from where she was elevated by Biden to DC’s federal appeals court – viewed as the second most powerful court in the country – in 2021.
