Jackson would be the first Black woman on the high court, and the first justice since Thurgood Marshall with significant experience as a criminal defense attorney

President Biden will nominate federal judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer, according to people briefed on the process, a historic choice that fulfills the president’s pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.

Jackson, 51, would also be just the third African American in the high court’s 233-year history. A former public defender, she served as a trial court judge in Washington for eight years before Biden elevated her last year to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She was confirmed to that court after a relatively uncontentious Senate hearing and with the backing of three Republican lawmakers.