President Obama Re-nominates First African American Woman to U.S. District Court in D.C. in Decades
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that President Obama has re-nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The President first nominated Jackson for the position in the 112th Congress, following Norton's recommendation, near the end of the 112th Congress. Jackson is currently Vice Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and if confirmed, would be the first African American woman appointed to the district court here in 32 years, the second ever to serve, and the only black woman currently on the bench.
"The President re-nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson on the first day of the 113th Congress, a strong indication of her exceptional qualifications and of the importance he places on diversity on the bench," Norton said. "I expect that Vice Chair Jackson will be confirmed easily by the Senate, as she has been through the confirmation process before, when she was nominated to serve on the Sentencing Commission in 2010."
President Obama, like President Clinton, granted Norton senatorial courtesy to recommend candidates for federal district court judges and other important federal law enforcement positions in the District. The Congresswoman recommended Jackson from a number of candidates screened by her 17-person Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission, chaired by Pauline Schneider, a former chair of the D.C. Bar and a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
Published: January 7, 2013