Washington (AFP) - President Joe Biden is set to pick Kentanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman in US history to serve on the nation's highest court, media reported on Friday.
Jackson, the frontrunner, was appointed to the federal bench in 2013, and was backed by three Republican senators last year when she was elevated to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, seen as a staging ground for aspiring Supreme Court justices.
With one liberal justice replacing another, the announcement, reported by CNN and NBC, will not reshape the ideological make-up of the court -- but it is a huge moment for Biden personally and politically.
White House officials hope it will provide a few days of positive news coverage ahead of Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday.
The pick presents an opportunity for the administration to pivot from a spate of bad news in recent months, with Biden's domestic agenda stalled amid runaway inflation and plummeting poll numbers.
The announcement is also another chance for Biden to show the Black voters who rescued his floundering 2020 primary campaign that he can deliver for them following the recent defeat of voting rights legislation.
Black Americans are among Biden's strongest supporters, with two-thirds approving of his job performance, according to a CBS poll released last week.
But his popularity among the key demographic -- 85 percent at the start of his term -- declined over the months following his inauguration and he has not recovered the lost ground.
