1 History Made: Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmed By Senate To Be SCOTUS Justice
It’s official, Ketanji Brown Jackson is heading to the Supreme Court after being confirmed by the Senate. Jackson will be the first Black woman to ever serve on the nation's highest court. The final vote to confirm Jackson was 53-47 – and included three Republicans joining Dems. She'll replace the retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer this summer. Once he officially steps down, Judge Jackson will be sworn in. Between now and then, she’ll recuse herself from a number of cases, including an Affirmative Action case involving Harvard. Essentially, the next case she hears will be when she joins the Supreme Court. Later today, President Biden is set to host an event celebrating at the White House – but Democrats have already begun taking a victory lap. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called it an “amazing day” and stressed her confirmation is part of long, hard road to greater equality and less bigotry in the U.S.
2 Russia Is Kicked From UN Human Rights Council
The United Nations has voted to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. The votes came in at 93 in favor, 24 against the expulsion and 58 abstaining. The General Assembly will suspend Russia's Rights of membership to the Council for committing "gross and systematic violations of Human Rights." The General Assembly needed to vote in favor by two-thirds to remove Russia from the Human Rights Council. On a related note, a bill banning Russian oil imports to the U.S. is headed to President Biden's desk after passage by the House and Senate. Biden called for the ban last month. The bill is a response to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Russia's actions in Ukraine brutal and horrifying.
3 Most Americans Have Not Fully Returned To Pre-Pandemic Life
The COVID-19 pandemic is still having an impact on many Americans' lives. A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows most Americans continue to be impacted by the virus as they live their daily lives. A plurality of U.S. adults, roughly 42%, say they are doing some but not all of the activities they enjoyed before COVID-19. Another 41% say their lives are "basically returned to normal" or COVID-19 didn't have a major impact on their activity level. A majority of Americans also say masking should still be used as a COVID mitigation measure, and 51% of those surveyed said they personally wore a mask most or all of the time they were indoors in public places in the last month.