History was made as Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a slim majority. This also fulfilled a campaign promise made by President Joe Biden.

There was never that much doubt that Jackson would not be confirmed given that Democrats held control of the Senate and even moderate Democrats like Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema had signaled their support. But, it was unexpected that Republicans like Senator Mitt Romney and Susan Collins also voted in favor.

Like most confirmation hearings in recent years, the hearings were less about the judicial merits of the nominee but more an opportunity for Senators to grandstand and push their preferred issues. So, Republicans focused on the increase in crime rates and questioned decisions made by Jackson while she was on lower courts, in regards to sentencing for offenses.

These attacks didn't gain much traction beyond the base as her decisions were within the norm and guidelines. According to public polling, over 60% of Americans supported her confirmation, an indication that the smear campaign didn't work. She also drew positive comments from her public statements about her journey from a working-class background to the elite levels of American law. And, lawmakers were pretty unanimous in their positive remarks about private conversations even among those that didn't support her confirmation.

In essence, the attempt was made to frame Jackson as some sort of radical. This was easily dispelled by her public statements in which she came across as very reasonable and likable. Jackson will be replacing Justice Breyer who had resisted earlier calls to step down and not lead to a recurrence of what happened with Justice Ginsburg and Scalia.

Justice Scalia passed away during former President Barack Obama's tenure, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked his replacement, who was eventually picked by President Trump. Later, Justice Ginsburg passed away during President Trump's tenure who also picked a conservative replacement, giving Republicans a 6-3 majority on the Court.

Notably, there had been significant pressure on Justice Ginsburg to retire during the Obama Administration. But, she resisted which led to Democrats losing her seat with her untimely death. So, there was similar pressure on Justice Breyer as he was over 80 years old to retire so that a Democrat could pick his replacement especially as polling is indicating that Republicans will take control of the Senate next year.