Biden will nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a source close to the White House told The Post Friday.
Jackson, 51, is a federal judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and would be the first black woman to join the Supreme Court.
The judge was an instant front-runner for the lifetime post after Breyer, 83, said in January that he would retire, but Biden’s vetting process was shrouded in secrecy with few leaks to the press.
Senate Democrats can confirm Jackson, a former Breyer clerk, without any GOP support, but she was confirmed to her current position last year with three Republican votes.
Jackson is a mother of two and holds undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University.
In picking Jackson, Biden resisted lobbying by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) to pick South Carolina federal Judge J. Michelle Childs. Clyburn enlisted his state’s Republican senators and argued there should be diversity of background on the court, where eight of nine current members went to Harvard or Yale for law school. Childs attended public universities.
Clyburn elicited Biden’s commitment to pick a black woman ahead of the 2020 South Carolina primary. The influential black congressman subsequently endorsed Biden, reviving the former vice president’s campaign after Biden’s crushing defeats in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
The Supreme Court currently has one black member, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.
Jackson’s confirmation is not expected to shift the ideological balance of the high court. She would keep the seat in control of a Democratic president’s nominee. Currently, six justices were nominated by Republicans and three, including Breyer, were put forward by Democrats.
Jackson’s husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, is a surgeon and she is related by marriage to former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who introduced her at a 2012 confirmation hearing.