WASHINGTON — When Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes Justice Jackson — a promotion now all but certain — she’ll be the first appointee of a Democratic president to join the Supreme Court in nearly 12 years.
Three Republican appointees have joined the high court in the meantime, cementing a solid 6-3 conservative majority built through tactics that many Democrats see as theft.
The Republican blockade of Judge Merrick Garland in 2016 held open the vacancy that President Donald Trump filled in 2017 with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. In 2020, the mad rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave conservatives the seat they needed to dominate the court, potentially for years.
