Narrowly confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday, President Biden's pick to become the 116th Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is a win with gun control groups. 

Three Republicans-- Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Mitt Romney (Utah)-- jumped ship in the equally divided Senate this week to approve Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination in a 53-47 vote, sending her to the nation's highest court for a lifetime appointment. 

Jackson, a former Vice-Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission under President Obama before he nominated her to the U.S. District Court for the D.C. District, had few past rulings on gun cases and was vague about Second Amendment protections when asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee prior to her confirmation. About the closest she came to addressing it was in answer to a question from U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who asked, "Do you believe the individual right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right?" 

To this, Jackson replied in the non-committal, "Senator, the Supreme Court has established that the individual right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right." 

In 330-pages of answers to written questions from the Committee, the Second Amendment was brought up several times, to which Jackson again cited Supreme Court precedents and then swatted away the opportunity to comment further.

Despite her ephemeral answers on all subjects 2A, within seconds of Jackson's confirmation vote, all the major national anti-gun groups fired off celebratory press releases hailing the installment of the 51-year-old judge to fill the seat vacated by Justice Stephen Breyer. Breyer, 83, was a solid and consistent voice against Second Amendment reforms before the court, having gone against the majority in both the Heller and McDonald cases. 

"Americans have a right to live free from gun violence, a right to enact strong public safety laws to protect their families and community, and those rights are perfectly consistent with the Second Amendment. We hope and expect that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson will be a strong voice for those rights on the Supreme Court," said Brady President Kris Brown. "The court will certainly hear cases regarding our nation’s gun violence prevention and public safety laws in the future, it is reassuring that Judge Brown Jackson will hear and rule on these questions fairly and impartially."

Giffords called the vote "a boundary-breaking day for our country" then said, "We have no doubt that Justice Jackson will be an inspirational and successful jurist for decades to come, and that she will be a justice for all Americans, committed to the ideals of equal justice under law." 

"The confirmation of Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court is a historic moment shattering a glass ceiling that has existed for far too long in this country,” said Shannon Watts with Everytown's Moms Demand Action group, before going on to say, "we’re confident Judge Jackson will determine that commonsense gun safety laws are constitutional and our grassroots army of volunteers was proud to support her confirmation."

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who voted against Jackson, said he felt she will be "the furthest left of any justice on the Supreme Court then said, "I think we can anticipate that she will vote consistently to undermine the Constitutional rights of Americans. To undermine our rights to free speech, to undermine our rights to religious liberty, undermine our rights under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms."

Banner image: President Biden and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in a photo released Feb. 25, 2022, by the White House.