Updated at 12:13 p.m. E.T.
Ketanji Brown Jackson is now the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Jackson was sworn in during a ceremony held Thursday in the West Conference Room at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the Constitutional Oath while the departing Justice Breyer, for whom Jackson served as a law clerk, will administered the Judicial Oath.
In February, President Biden nominated Jackson to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced earlier this year that he would step down in the summer. Jackson, a judge on the D.C. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was confirmed by the Senate in April by a vote of 53 to 47.
In remarks at the White House following her confirmation, Jackson said, “It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, but we’ve made it! We’ve made it, all of us.”
Jackson will take a seat on a court that is currently controlled by a supermajority of conservative justices and which, in recent weeks, has released rulings that favor conservative positions in cases involving school prayer and gun laws.
On Friday, the court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion as a constitutionally-protected right.
Jackson’s appointment will not change the political composition of the court, which will retain its 6-3 conservative majority.
The ceremony was streamed live on multiple news networks and on the Supreme Court’s website.
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