‘We have made it’: Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘honored’ to become supreme court’s first Black female justice – live | Ketanji Brown Jackson

Psaki divulged that she and other Biden administration officials were “ugly crying” on the south lawn at this afternoon’s White House reception for the new supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“I was with [the president] before when he was doing his final review of his remarks and what he was reflecting on was the number of people, whether people who work at the White House, people who are part of his every day, stewards or others who have commented to him how significant this moment is,” she said.

“History can be heartbreaking and many days it has been. History can be exhausting, and many days it has been. And history can be joyful. Today was a joyful day in history. And that’s certainly how the president was.”

As for her own tears, Psaki said she would try to avoid a repeat in the briefing room in answering a question about Biden’s demeanor ahead of the celebration.

“I’m going to try not to ugly cry about this day, which we were all doing on the south lawn,” she said.

The missile attack on a railway station in Ukraine, which killed at least 50, is “another horrific atrocity committed by Russia,” the White House says.

Press secretary Jen Psaki made the statement at her afternoon briefing, saying the attack on the station in Kramatorsk fitted a pattern of indiscriminate aggression from Russian president Vladimir Putin’s military.

“What we have seen over the course of the last six weeks, or more than that, has been what the president himself has characterized as war crimes, which is the intentional targeting of civilians,” Psaki said.

“This is yet another horrific atrocity committed by Russia, striking civilians who are trying to evacuate and reach safety. We’re going to support efforts to investigate the attack as we document Russia’s actions [and] hold them accountable.

“Obviously the targeting of civilians would certainly be a war crime and we’ve already called a range of the actions we’ve seen to date a war crime, but we’re going to be supporting efforts to investigate exactly what happened here.”

A federal jury has acquitted two men of conspiring to kidnap the Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, and was deadlocked on the same charges for two other men.

The four were charged in a plot prosecutors said was inspired by their fierce opposition to pandemic-related restrictions put into place by her office.

According to Reuters:

The 12-member panel in Grand Rapids, Michigan, found Adam Fox and Daniel Harris not guilty of kidnapping conspiracy charges. The jury was not able to agree on a verdict for Brandon Caserta and Barry Croft Jr.

Harris was also found not guilty of knowingly conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against persons or property for allegations of plotting to use explosives to blow up a bridge after abducting the governor. The jury was not able to reach a verdict against Fox and Croft for the same charge, resulting in a mistrial. Caserta did not face the weapons charge.

The case stands one of the most high-profile prosecutions of alleged members of right-wing organizations that have sprung up in the years since former President Donald Trump’s election in 2016. It also highlights the extent to which the pandemic and government efforts to control it have become a wedge issue in US politics.

Read more about the case here:

The US believes Russia used a short range ballistic missile to strike a railway station in east Ukraine on Friday, a senior US defense official said on Friday, Reuters reports.

Ukraine said at least 50 people were killed and many more wounded in a strike on a station in the city of Kramatorsk that was packed with civilians hoping to flee the threat of a major Russian offensive.

The US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon believes Russian forces used an SS-21 Scarab missile in the strike but that the motivation for the attack was not clear.

The SS-21 is the name used by the NATO military alliance for a type of missile known as the Tochka in former Soviet states.

The United States was still analyzing the strike and it was unclear whether cluster munitions were used, the official said.

We are not buying the denial by the Russians that they weren’t responsible,” the official said.

The Russian defense ministry was quoted by RIA news agency as saying the missiles said to have struck the station were used only by Ukraine’s military and that Russia’s armed forces had no targets assigned in Kramatorsk on Friday.

Videos posted on social media in recent weeks, which Reuters could not independently verify, appear to show Russian forces in or near Ukraine transporting Tochka missile launchers.

The U.S. defense official said Russia’s combat power in Ukraine continued to decline and was somewhere between 80% and 85% of its pre-invasion levels.

The United States has estimated Russia assembled more than 150,000 troops around Ukraine before its invasion on February 24.

The official said the United States now had indications Moscow has started mobilizing some reservists and could be looking to recruit more than 60,000 personnel.

For all the details on the Ukraine crisis, around the clock, please follow our global live blog, here.

Citing “no time for complacency,” Joe Biden has ordered the deployment of a US Patriot air defense system to Slovakia to replace a similar missile system that country has donated to Ukraine.

Biden hailed the swap deal between the allies in a statement from the White House released on Friday lunchtime.

The Ukraine president Volydymyr Zelenskiy and his defense officials have been vocal in their requests for western military equipment to help repel Russia’s invasion.

The White House statement reads:

Since the outset of my administration, the United States has placed the highest priority on delivering critical military capabilities to Ukraine so it can defend itself against Russian aggression. The entire world has now witnessed the effectiveness of those weapons, as courageous Ukrainian forces have used them to repel the Russian attack on Kyiv, keep the skies of Ukraine contested, and deliver severe blows to the Russian military.

In addition to US-produced weapons, we have also worked to facilitate the transfer of capabilities from our Allies and partners around the world. I want to thank the Slovakian government for providing an S-300 air defense system to Ukraine, something President Zelenskyy has personally raised with me in our conversations. To enable this transfer and ensure the continued security of Slovakia, the United States will reposition a US Patriot missile system to Slovakia.

Now is no time for complacency. The Russian military may have failed in its objective of capturing Kyiv, but it continues to inflict horrific acts of brutality on the Ukrainian people. As the Russian military repositions for the next phase of this war, I have directed my Administration to continue to spare no effort to identify and provide to the Ukrainian military the advanced weapons capabilities it needs to defend its country.

Jackson invoked a number of historical civil rights figures as she closed her moving address to the attendees on the White House south lawn.

“I am also ever buoyed by the leadership of generations past who helped to light the way, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Justice Thurgood Marshall [the first Black supreme court justice] and my personal heroine, Judge Constance Baker Motley [a former district court judge in New York and state senator].

“They and so many others did the heavy lifting that made this day possible. And for all the talk of this historic nomination and now confirmation, I think of them as the true path breakers. I’m just the very lucky first inheritor of the dream of liberty and justice for all.”

Breaking down in tears, she acknowledged the power of the moment:

“To be sure, I have worked hard to get to this point in my career and I have now achieved something far beyond anything my grandparents could have possibly ever imagined. But no one does this on their own. The path was cleared for me so that I might rise to this occasion.

“And in the poetic words of Maya Angelou, I do so now while ‘bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave. I am the dream and the hope of the slave’,” Jackson said, quoting Angelou’s famous poem Still I Rise.

“This is a moment in which all Americans can take great pride. We have come a long way toward perfecting our union. In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the supreme court of the United States.

“It is the honor of a lifetime for me to have this chance to join the court, to promote the rule of law at the highest level and to do my part to carry our shared project of democracy and equal justice under law forward into the future.”

An emotional Ketanji Brown Jackson said: “We have made it,” as she acknowledged the honor and responsibility of becoming the first Black woman justice to serve on the US supreme court.

“It’s been somewhat overwhelming, in a good way, to recently be flooded with thousands of notes and cards and photos, expressing just how much this moment means to so many people,” she said.

“The notes that I’ve received from children are particularly cute and especially meaningful because more than anything, they speak directly to the hope and promise of America.

“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the supreme court of the United States. But we’ve made it. We’ve made it all of us, and our children are telling me that they see now, more than ever, that here in America anything is possible.”

Jackson said she also appreciated the responsibility she has been handed:

“They also tell me that I’m a role model, which I take both as an opportunity and as a huge responsibility,” she said.

“I am feeling up to the task primarily because I know that I am not alone. I am standing on the shoulders of my own role models, generations of Americans who never had anything close to this kind of opportunity. But who got up every day and went to work, believing in the promise of America, showing others through their determination and yes, their perseverance, that good things can be done in this great country.”

Ketanji Brown Jackson is pledging to defend the constitution and uphold the rule of law when she succeeds the retiring liberal supreme court justice Stephen Breyer this summer.

Pausing sporadically to dab at tears, she said her decades of experience would guide her in her new role.

“I’ve dedicated my career to public service, because I love this country and our Constitution and the rights that make us free,” she said.

“I also understand from my many years of practice, as a legal advocate as a trial judge, and as a judge on a Court of Appeals, that part of the genius of the constitutional framework of the United States is its design, and that the framers entrusted the judicial branch with a crucial but limited role.

“In every instance, I have done my level best to stay in my lane and to reach a result that is consistent with my understanding of the law and with the obligation to rule independently, without fear or favor.

“I am humbled and honored to continue in this fashion as an Associate Justice of the supreme court of the United States, working with brilliant colleagues supporting and defending the constitution and steadfastly upholding the rule of law.”

Ketanji Brown Jackson says her confirmation to a US supreme court seat is “the greatest honor of my life.”

The newest justice began her remarks with thanks to Joe Biden, the president who nominated her, the vice-president Kamala Harris, and the senators who supported her.

But she said she was also “truly blessed” to have the support of those closest to her.

“It is the greatest honor of my life to be here with you at this moment, standing before my wonderful family, many of my close friends, your distinguished staff and guests, and the American people,” she said, turning to Biden.

“I have come this far by faith and I know that I am truly blessed. To the many people who have lifted me up in prayers since the nomination, thank you. I am very grateful.

“Thank you as well, Mr President, for believing in me and for honoring me with this extraordinary chance to serve our country.”

Biden is warming to his theme of a moment in history.

“We can turn our children and grandchildren to say, ‘I was there. I was there at one of these moments’,” he said.

“My fellow Americans, today I’m honored to officially introduce to you the next associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The president was also full of praise for the new justice, her qualifications, and her poise through a torrid confirmation process.

“After more than 20 hours of questioning, nearly 100 meetings, she made herself available. Every single senator wanted to speak to her and spoke for more than just a few minutes, answer their questions in private as well as before the committee,” he said.

“We all saw the kind of justice she’ll be: fair and impartial, thoughtful, careful, precise, brilliant, a brilliant legal mind with deep knowledge of the law. And the judicial temperament, which was equally important in my view. That’s calm and in command.

“So many Americans can see that Ketanji Brown Jackson brings a rare combination of expertise and qualifications in the court. A federal judge who has served on the second most powerful court in America behind the supreme court, a former federal public defender, the ability to explain complicated issues and the law in ways all people expected.”

Biden also paid tribute to Mitt Romney, and his two fellow Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who also voted for Jackson to make her confirmation a bipartisan event.

Joe Biden is now at the podium, hailing Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation as: “A moment of real change in American history.”

“This is going to let so much sunshine on so many young women, so many young black men, so many minorities, it’s real,” Biden said.

“We’re going to look back and see this is a moment of real change in American history.

“Yesterday, we all witnessed a truly historic moment, presided over by the vice-president. There are moments that people go back in history. And they’re literally historic, consequential, fundamental shifts in American policy,” Biden added.

“Today we’re joined by the First Lady, the second gentleman and members of the Cabinet, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and so many who made this possible.

“Today is a good day, a day that history is going to remember. They’re going to be proud of what we did.”