Highlights from Senate vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson

Confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson -- Biden’s first nominee to the Supreme Court -- are officially underway. Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., gaveled them in just after 11 a.m.

To begin, the committee’s 22 members will each have 10 minutes each for opening statements ahead of two introducers to Jackson and an opening statement from Jackson herself.

If confirmed, Jackson would become the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court.

A Monmouth University Poll released this morning found a majority of Americans (55%) say Jackson should be confirmed as an associate justice on the Supreme Court. Only 21% say she should not be confirmed, and 24% offered no opinion.

Jackson’s husband, Patrick, two daughters, Talia and Lelia, and her parents, Johnny Brown and Ellery Brown, are all in attendance for the historic event.

In a sign of pandemic restrictions easing across the country and in Washington, almost no one in the hearing room was wearing a mask.

Judge Jackson arrived on Capitol Hill before 10:30 a.m. on Monday to begin a marathon week of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will need to approve her nomination to the Supreme Court before it sees a full floor vote.

Asked by reporters how she’s feeling this morning, Jackson said, "Very good – thank you,” and headed down the halls toward the hearing room.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will gavel in at 11 a.m. with 10-minute statements from the committee's 11 Republican and 11 Democratic members in order of seniority. Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, will kick off the hearings.

Following member opening statements, Judge Thomas Griffith, formerly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and professor Lisa Fairfax of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School will have five minutes each to introduce Jackson. Both know Jackson personally.

Griffith often reviewed Jackson’s decisions as a trial judge while he served on the Court of Appeals and wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee last month in support of Jackson's confirmation. Fairfax and Jackson were roommates for most of college and law school at Harvard University.

Finally, Jackson will deliver her 10-minute opening statement to close the day, which will air on the ABC News broadcast network with special coverage.

Judge Jackson recounted in a 2017 speech that her parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, wanting to show pride in their African ancestry, asked her aunt, who was then in the Peace Corps in West Africa, for a list of African girl names.

Taking one of her suggestions, Jackson's parents named her Ketanji Onyika, which translates to "lovely one."

Jackson's parents grew up in South Florida under segregation, "but never gave up hope that their children would enjoy the true promise of America,” Biden said at a White House event last month introducing Jackson.

Biden said Jackson was a "star student" who fell in love with a law career while watching her own father going to law school at the University of Miami, often drawing on coloring books at the dining room table next to her father's homework. Jackson went on to attend Harvard Law School herself, despite some cautioning her against setting her sights too high.

“My life has been blessed beyond measure and I do know that one can only come this far by faith,” Jackson said at the White House. “Among my many blessings, the very first is the fact that I was born in this great country. The United States of America is the greatest beacon of hope and democracy the world has ever known.”

She married Patrick Jackson, a general surgeon, in 1996, and the couple has two daughters, Talia, 21, and Leila, 17.

With Biden's nomination of Judge Jackson, he officially followed through on his 2020 campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court and his vow to make the high court look more "like America."

"For too long our government, our courts haven't looked like America," Biden said at a White House event last month introducing his historic pick. "And I believe it is time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications. And that we inspire all young people to believe that they can one day serve their country at the highest level."

A former clerk to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, Jackson has more than eight years experience on the federal bench, following a path through the judiciary traveled by many nominees before her. If confirmed, she would be the first federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court and the first justice since Thurgood Marshall to have criminal defense experience.

"She listens. She looks people in the eye, lawyers, defendants, victims and families. And she strives to ensure that everyone understands why she made a decision, what the law is and what it means to them," Biden said. "She strives to be fair, to get it right, to do justice."

While the White House was eager to follow through on Biden's pledge, an ABC News/Ipsos poll from January found just 23% of Americans said they wanted him to automatically follow through on his history-making commitment. Over three-quarters of Americans (76%) said they wanted Biden to consider "all possible nominees."