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The first black woman to serve as a US constitutional judge: Ketanji Brown Jackson before the Supreme Court
Photo Credit: IMAGO/JEMAL COUNTESS / IMAGO/UPI Photo
Ketanji Brown Jackson has become the first black woman in American history to serve as a justice on the US Supreme Court.
The 52-year-old had already taken her oath of office at the country's Supreme Court at the end of June.
A formal inauguration ceremony followed on Friday at the court in the US capital Washington – in the presence of US President Joe Biden and other high-ranking members of the government.
The new session of the Supreme Court begins next Monday.
Jackson succeeds longtime Judge Stephen Breyer, who retired, and for whom Jackson served as a trainee judge.
Breyer had already announced at the beginning of the year that he would retire this summer after almost three decades at the court.
For the first time in his tenure, Biden was given the opportunity to fill one of the nine judge positions.
Judges on the Supreme Court are appointed for life and must be confirmed by the Senate in a complex procedure.
Jackson cleared that hurdle in early April.
The change in personnel will not change the right-wing majority on the US Supreme Court.
Breyer and Jackson both belong to the liberal camp.
Biden's Republican predecessor Donald Trump was able to place three Supreme Court justices during his tenure: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
This shifted the court to the right in the longer term.
Currently, six of the nine judges are right-wing and three are liberal.
In addition to Jackson, these are Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
jso/dpa