It is a historic step for Americans: For the first time, a black woman is to administer justice on the Supreme Court.

Ketanji Brown Jackson is 51 years old, was previously a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington and is set to succeed Stephen Breyer, who announced his retirement at the end of the current session.

President Joe Biden announced her nomination, which the Senate must vote on, on Friday.

The White House has said Jackson combines wisdom with pragmatism, much like Breyer did.

According to his Twitter account, Biden called Jackson one of the most brilliant lawyers in the country.

Their appointment will not change the majority of the Supreme Court.

Three out of nine judges belong to the liberal minority.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin called Biden's selection a historic decision that will now be followed by a fair approval process in the chamber.

Biden had already announced during the election campaign that he wanted to nominate the first black woman as chief justice – he said in spring 2020 that her representation on the Supreme Court was long overdue.

So far there have been 115 Chief Justices – all but five were or are men.

Jackson overturned Donald Trump's order

When it comes to the formal qualifications, Jackson has everything that makes her the ideal candidate, observers such as CNN legal expert Jeffrey Toobin said after the decision became known.

Like a number of chief justices, she studied at Harvard University and worked in the federal judiciary, which has traditionally functioned as a recruitment field for higher office.

Jackson, who is the mother of two daughters, was appointed by Biden to the Washington, DC Federal Circuit Court of Appeals last year.

There, for example, she withdrew an order from Donald Trump's administration that had restricted the rights of unions in the public sector.

Prior to that, she was a judge at the Federal District Court of the capital.

Jackson also served on the federal sentencing commission from 2003 to 2005.

At that time, the panel recommended, among other things, a reduction in prison terms for possession of the drug crack.

Earlier in her career, Jackson worked as an assistant to Stephen Breyer, whose place on the bench she is now set to take.

Former President Barack Obama considered Jackson in 2016 to succeed the late Chief Justice Antonin Scalia, for whose seat he then unsuccessfully nominated now Attorney General Merrick Garland.

It was not only important to the Democrats to appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court.

The fact that Jackson worked as a public defender for several years also sets her apart from most other chief justices of recent times, emphasized journalist Abby Phillip.

Much like the then first black man on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, Jackson got to know the other side of the legal system as a lawyer.

Because this system often discriminates against blacks, many hoped Jackson would get a better understanding of current conditions, Phillip said on CNN.

Republicans: Reagan and Trump also nominated women

Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell has already rejected fundamental criticism of Biden's announcement that he wants to nominate a black woman.

After all, Republicans Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump also explicitly advertised that they brought women to the Supreme Court.

Politically, Jackson, who was born in Washington and grew up in Miami, is considered comparatively well positioned.

Because she has already gone through an appointment process for her current office, in which three Republicans also voted for her confirmation: Senators Susan Collins from Maine, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska and their colleague Lindsey Graham from South Carolina said that to her last year trust off.

Former Republican "Speaker" of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan is a relative of Jackson's by marriage.

Conservative organizations like the National Organization for Marriage are already calling for a fight against Jackson's appointment.

But many Republicans are unlikely to see any need for a major conflict because their majority on the Supreme Court is not in jeopardy.

They had thwarted Obama's appointment of Garland through months of delaying tactics - so Donald Trump was then able to appoint the conservative Neil Gorsuch immediately after taking office in January 2017.

The memory of this is still very present for many Democrats, but at the moment they have a slim majority and their own right-wing party will probably support Jackson's nomination as a whole.