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Ketanji Brown Jackson officially joins Supreme Court in historic investiture ceremony

WASHINGTON — Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was welcomed to the U.S. Supreme Court in a ceremonial investiture held Friday morning.

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Jackson is the newest member of the court and the first Black female justice. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their spouses all attended the ceremony.

In a description of the chronology of the ceremony, the Supreme Court said Jackson would sit in the same chair used by Chief Justice John Marshall during the early 19th century. The same chair has been used for the investiture of every member of the court since Lewis F. Powell Jr. took his judicial oath in 1972.


Jackson was confirmed in April by a 53-47 vote in the Senate, with three Republican senators joining all Democrats to support her, The Associated Press reported.

The investiture ceremony dates to June 23, 1969, when then-Chief Justice Earl Warren administered both the constitutional oath and the judicial oath to incoming Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. Since then, the Court began to hold special sittings to receive the commissions of new justices, with the first ceremony held on June 9, 1970 for Justice Harry A. Blackmun.

According to the Supreme Court, the chief justice typically administers the constitutional oath privately to the new justice. The commission is then presented and read aloud in the courtroom, and the chief justice administers the judicial oath in the courtroom.

There are no cameras allowed inside the courtroom.

This was the first time in the court’s 233-year history that the investiture ceremony includes a Black woman. Of the 116 justices who have served on the bench, all but eight have been white men, CNN reported. Jackson will be the sixth woman on the bench.

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