The Supreme Court on Friday will host a formal investiture ceremony for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the court, with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both set to attend.
Jackson, appointed by Biden to replace fellow liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired in June, was sworn in in July and has already been participating fully in the court's activities. As such, Friday's event is purely a formality. She will join the three-member liberal minority on the court, which is dominated, 6-3, by conservatives.
Jackson is the third Black justice, after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and is the sixth women to serve on the court. For the first time, the Supreme Court has four women serving as justices at the same time.
More from NBC News:
The court's new nine-month term begins Monday, with the justices taking up a series of contentious cases, including several touching upon race. The court announced Wednesday that members of the public will be able to attend oral arguments for the first time since the pandemic led to a shutdown in March 2020. The court will continue to provide an audio livestream of arguments, a development introduced during the pandemic.
During the ceremony, Jackson will sit in a chair that was once used by Chief Justice John Marshall in the 19th century, and that has been used for investitures since 1972. Attorney General Merrick Garland will introduce her before she publicly takes the judicial oath. Jackson will then take a seat on the far right of the bench, as is customary for the most junior justice.