EMILYs List Statement on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Making History

For Immediate Release
June 30, 2022 

EMILYs List Statement on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Making History as First Black Woman to Sit on the Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn into the Supreme Court of the United States. EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler released the following statement celebrating this historic achievement:

“Today Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made history, becoming the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court in its 233-year history. Justice Jackson’s record of distinguished leadership and her exceptional qualifications position her to excel on the Court; we are thrilled to celebrate her brilliant legal mind, immovable grace, and resolute commitment to justice. 

“This day is bittersweet, a hard-won fight amid a national assault on our rights. It comes less than a week after the Court on which Justice Jackson now serves opted to overturn the precedent set by Roe v. Wade. This is a step forward at a time when the Court has moved us backward, taking rights away and denying us control of our bodies, our health, and our futures. Justice Jackson is one of the nation’s best legal minds, and she will undoubtedly build a strong legacy on the Court. We are thrilled at this historic achievement, recognizing how powerful her voice will be on the Court and in this fight to secure our constitutional right to reproductive freedom.”

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 159 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.