Justice Stephen Breyer administered the oath of office to Ketanji Brown Jackson on Thursday when she was appointed to the Supreme Court to fill his vacant seat after he retired.
Following her confirmation earlier this year, Brown took her position and repeated the Judicial Oath to Jackson as he officially departed from the bench.
Jackson becomes the first black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice with the ceremony on Thursday.
After the new justices had taken the oath and shook Breyer’s hand, conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said, “On behalf of all of the members of the Court I am glad to welcome Justice Jackson to the Court and to our common calling.”
With the recent 6-3 conservative majority following the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, several contentious judgments were made during Breyer’s final term before turning his seat over to Jackson.
Roe v. Wade, a landmark abortion case that removed federal safeguards for a woman’s right to end her pregnancy, was reversed during the eighth term, returning control of the matter to the states.
Jackson was put forth by President Joe Biden after Breyer announced his retirement in January 2022.
The justices convened on Thursday for the swearing-in ceremony after their final two opinions of the term were published on Thursday, one of which supported Biden’s decision to end the Migrant Protection Protocols of the Trump administration (MPP).
The opposite viewpoint was rejected by a vote of 6 to 3, which limits the federal government’s capacity to control emissions from power plants.
According to the ruling, it is forbidden for federal agencies to make “major” decisions without express consent from Congress.
Roberts stated in his judgment for the court that capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will compel a national shift away from the use of coal to generate power “may be a sensible “response to the crisis of the day.”
Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer, who are liberals on the court, dissented.
As with the previous few Supreme Court nominee confirmation hearings under Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and now Biden, Jackson’s hearing was controversial.
Republicans’ allegations that Jackson’s past sentencing decisions for child pornographers showed her to be far too lenient were at the center of the Jackson’s confirmation debate.
They assert that she disobeyed the suggested sentencing to lessen the penalties for viewers and distributors of child porn throughout her tenure as a judge in lower courts.
Senate Judiciary Republicans Josh Hawley of Missouri, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Ted Cruz of Texas were the leading proponents of these assertions.
Jackson was approved by the Senate to the U.S. Supreme Court as the 116th justice in early April of this year by a vote of 53-47.
Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah, three moderate Republicans, betrayed their party to support her nomination by voting with Democrats.