In news that is definitely being overshadowed by the actual war for survival occuring in Ukraine, Grandpa Joe has picked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

Now, Ketanji Brown Jackson was not the first choice for some Biden loyalists. James Clyburn (who Biden definitely owes after saving him during the primaries), along with Joe Manchin, Tim Scott, and Lindsey Graham, all came out in favor of J. Michelle Childs, a US District judge from South Carolina. However, Biden’s choice may have been partially determined by age. Childs is 55, and Ketanji Brown Jackson is 51. (The other top candidate, California Supreme Court Associate Justice Leondra Kruger, is only 45 but has never been vetted by the Senate before.) A four year difference between the two women shouldn’t be a dealbreaker, but four years IS the length of a presidential term.

I’m proud to announce that I am nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court. Currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, she is one of our nation’s brightest legal minds and will be an exceptional Justice.https://t.co/iePvhz1YaA pic.twitter.com/Nzqv2AtN8h

— President Biden (@POTUS) February 25, 2022

Regardless, Ketanji Brown Jackson ticks off all of Biden’s boxes. She’s a young black woman, and she is a reliable progressive who will keep voting for progressive causes. Done and done. Democrats are not looking for a deep judicial mind who will carefully consider Constitutional implications. They want a reliable left vote to step into Stephen Breyer’s shoes who vote with Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. This is a one-for-one switch, so while Republicans will poke holes in her record, there is every likelihood that Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes a Supreme Court justice unless something impossible to ignore comes up in her vetting.

And Democrats know exactly what they are getting with her – a former law clerk for Breyer himself who will follow his track record.

Brown Jackson’s record was a focal point last year during her confirmation for a seat on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where she now sits.”

During Jackson’s 2021 confirmation for her current position, conservatives pointed to her track record of overturned rulings.”

One 2019 case involved an order that expanded the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) definition on which noncitizens could be deported. Another overturning involved a trio of orders on federal employees’ collective bargaining power.”

Jackson’s DHS ruling was overturned in a 2-1 decision by the D.C. Circuit Court, which said reviewing the DHS policy did not fall under the Administrative Procedure Act.”

The judge’s ruling on the three collective bargaining orders was overturned unanimously by the D.C. Circuit Court, which ruled that Jackson did not have jurisdiction to adjudicate the case.”

Joe Biden is giving the base exactly what he promised – a young black woman who will likely serve for decades on the Supreme Court as a leftist vote. In a split Senate, she’s going to pass with a simple majority even if Kamala Harris has to break the tie. (Speaking of which, Kamala Harris looks incredibly awkward standing off to the side of the podium, nodding like a masked bobblehead.)

Ketanji Brown Jackson said all the reliably correct things in her introduction to the press as Biden’s nominee, and she will likely reliably go through the meetings with senators, and then sit before the Senate Judiciary Committee and make all the Democrats reliably happy while giving reliable non-answers to Republicans. All in all, Brown Jackson will be what she has been advertised to be – a reliable liberal vote who satisfies the left’s intersectionality requirements, qualifications be damned. That doesn’t mean that conservatives won’t have some snarky commentary during this entire process.

1619 Project hardest hit https://t.co/HYXLIHMGHb

— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) February 25, 2022

And considering all that’s going on in the world right now, her nomination will get minimal air time. Which is sad for President Brandon, because anything he does right now is completely and justifiably overshadowed by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, and he really really really would have liked the distraction away from his massive foreign policy faceplanting.

Featured image: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, official portrait via Wikimedia Commons, cropped, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)