Colorado Law Students React To Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Confirmation To Supreme Court: 'Gives Me Hope'

DENVER (CBS4)- History was made on Thursday, after the Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. She becomes the first black woman confirmed to the highest court. It's a historic moment some Black law school students in Colorado are still trying to process.

"It shows that we're moving towards a world that looks just like the rest of the country does," said Essence Duncan, a second-year law student at the University of Colorado.

For many students of color, they've never seen someone who looks like them serve on the highest court of the land.

"I remember talking to my sister and being like 'it's time,' and she had friends that were like 'I'm balling my eyes out, I'm ready, I'm so excited, and this must be amazing for you,' and I think mine was having to double-check that I read it correctly," said Camille Moore, a second-year law student at the University of Denver's Strum College of Law.

Moore is the president of the Black Law Students' Association. She told CBS4 she couldn't watch the nomination hearings because she didn't want to get her hopes up, in case the confirmation didn't happen.

"It gives me hopes of what I can do," Moore said. "I think of what it means for little Black girls across the country, that there's no longer the feeling like I can't say what I want to be."

First-year DU law student Katie Wynn said the confirmation marks a moment of progress.

"Even if it doesn't mean something to you personally, it means something to a lot of people. It means something to a lot of Black women who are in law school right now," Wynn said. "Hopefully this marks a change in the right direction, to where that standard will slowly lower, and Black women will have an equal seat at the table with everyone else."

Among many qualifications, Jackson's extensive resume includes work as a federal public defender.

"Her having that opportunity to work with these indigent clients people that have likely never dealt with a lawyer before, some people that may have never even been in a space in college before to understand this legalism, I mean she's going to really humanize the supreme court," Duncan said.

For these students, it's a moment of pride, validation and inspiration. A moment that's long overdue.

Both of Colorado's senators voted to confirm Jackson. The vote was 53 to 47 with three republicans voting to confirm. Jackson will take her seat this summer when justice Stephen Breyer retires. Jackson becomes only the sixth woman to ever serve on the court.