AP-NORC POLL: MANY SUPPORT JACKSON COURT CONFIRMATION

WASHINGTON » More Americans approve than disapprove of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court as its first

Black female justice, a new poll finds, but that support is politically lopsided. And a majority of Black Americans — but fewer white and Hispanic Americans — approve of her confirmation.

Overall, 48% of Americans say they approve and 19% disapprove of Jackson’s confirmation to the high court, according to the new poll from The Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The remaining 32% of Americans hold no opinion.

Jackson’s nomination fulfilled a campaign promise by President

Joe Biden to name a Black woman to the court if given the opportunity. The findings suggest the confirmation did more to energize Biden’s Democratic base than it did to energize Republicans in opposition, despite vocal resistance from some GOP lawmakers who were largely united in voting against her April 7 confirmation. Three Republican senators broke with their party to confirm her with a 53-47 tally.

Eighty percent of Democrats and only 18% of Republicans approve of Jackson’s confirmation to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. Among Republicans, though, fewer than half — 43% — say they disapprove of the Harvard law graduate’s confirmation. An additional 37% of Republicans hold neither opinion. Only 5% of Democrats disapprove; 15% say they hold neither opinion.

It’s not unusual for a relatively high share of Americans to express no opinion about a justice’s confirmation. In October 2018 — after the vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh following a rancorous confirmation marked by sexual assault allegations — 35% approved, 43% disapproved and 20% said they held neither opinion. In October 2020 — before the vote to confirm conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the seat of late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — 30% were in favor to her being confirmed, 35% were opposed and 34% said they held neither opinion.

Jackson, 51, a federal appeals court judge in Washington, will join the court this summer when Breyer steps down. She will become the third Black person to sit on the court, following the late Justice Thurgood Marshall and current Justice Clarence Thomas. The court will for the first time have four women members and two Black members.

“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,” Jackson said. “But we’ve made it. We’ve made it, all of us.”