Ketanji Brown Jackson could also be confirmed as a Supreme Courtroom justice by one of many narrowest margins in historical past.

Jackson would change into the primary Black girl to serve on the nation's highest court docket, changing retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.

However President Joe Biden's nominee faces one other hurdle on the trail to her affirmation on Monday, when the Senate Judiciary Committee—evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans—votes on whether or not to maneuver her nomination to the Senate flooring.

Republicans on the committee grilled Jackson on her file as a public defender and choose throughout contentious hearings final month.

However her nomination would nonetheless proceed to the total Senate even when the committee deadlocks at 11-11 in Monday morning's vote.

Democrats can be anticipated to carry a vote on the Senate flooring that might let Jackson's nomination proceed, with a ultimate Senate affirmation vote anticipated later this week.

A easy majority is required for affirmation, so Jackson would safe the lifetime appointment so long as the Democrats stay united within the 50-50 Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris in a position to solid a tie-breaking vote.

However the assist of at the very least one Republican possible saves Democrats from having to make use of Harris' vote. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, introduced her assist for Jackson's affirmation final week.

Together with Collins, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Lisa Murkowski have been the one Republicans to assist Jackson's nomination to the U.S. Courtroom of appeals for the D.C. Circuit final yr. Graham has mentioned he'll oppose Jackson's affirmation, whereas Murkowski hasn't but revealed her vote.

All 50 Democrats are anticipated to assist Jackson, however Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a average, has but to say how she is going to vote. Sen. Joe Manchin has mentioned he'll assist Jackson's nomination.

If Jackson is finally confirmed by a 51-49 vote, it could be the closest since former president Donald Trump's second Supreme Courtroom appointee Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed by a 50-48 vote in 2018. That adopted a bitter affirmation course of that noticed Kavanaugh fiercely deny sexual misconduct allegations.

Supreme Courtroom nominees prior to now have been confirmed by giant Senate majorities, however votes in recent times have change into a lot nearer, divided alongside occasion traces.

Trump's different appointees have been additionally confirmed by slender margins, with Neil Gorsuch confirmed in 2017 on a 54-45 vote following a partisan struggle, after Senate Republicans refused to contemplate former President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland.

Gorsuch took the seat vacated by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who had been confirmed by a 98-0 vote in 1986.

Trump's third and ultimate appointee, Amy Coney Barrett, was confirmed 52-48 in 2020 after being nominated simply weeks earlier than the yr's presidential election following the dying of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had been confirmed 96-3 in 1993.

Clarence Thomas, the only Black justice presently on the court docket, was confirmed by a 52-48 vote in 1991 after going through allegations of sexual harassment throughout his affirmation hearings. In 1994, Breyer was confirmed 87-9.

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson
U.S. Supreme Courtroom nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson meets with U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Capitol Hill on March 29, 2022, in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Photographs