Vox Sentences - Historic day for Supreme Court

President Joe Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court; Russia continues its siege on Ukraine, despite new sanctions. 

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes.

Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court

Kevin Lamarque/Getty Images

• President Joe Biden is set to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill retiring Justice Stephen Breyer’s seat. If confirmed, Jackson will be the first Black woman to be a Supreme Court justice. [CNN]
• Biden made a formal announcement of Jackson’s nomination in a press conference Friday. “Judge Jackson is an exceptionally qualified nominee as well as an historic nominee, and the Senate should move forward with a fair and timely hearing and confirmation,” the White House said in a statement. [The White House]
• Jackson, 51, currently sits on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and is considered to be a liberal jurist, although she garnered some Republican support during her nomination last year to the Court of Appeals. She’ll face a somewhat challenging nomination as conservative legislators and interest groups attempt to paint her as a radical and foil her nomination. [NYT]
• Jackson, in addition to being the fifth woman and the third Black person to serve in the nation’s highest court, would be the first justice in decades to have significant experience in criminal defense. Like many other justices, she graduated from Harvard Law School and clerked under a Supreme Court justice — Breyer, actually — but her time as a federal public defender sets her apart as well. [Axios / Hans Nichols and Sam Baker]
• She also served as vice chair of the United States Sentencing Committee, which was created to address sentencing disparities and increase transparency and proportionality in sentencing. In 2013, Jackson started her career in the federal judiciary as a DC trial judge. [Vox / Ian Millhiser]

Russia moves to take Kyiv

• Russian troops have entered the Ukrainian capital Kyiv from the north, advancing to the city’s Obolon district. Despite rumors he had fled, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video from the city’s government district, saying, “We are here. We are in Kyiv. We are defending Ukraine.” [Axios / Dave Lawler and Zachary Basu]
• Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has advocated that the Ukrainian military stage a coup and negotiate with him. “Take power into your own hands,” he said to the soldiers, explaining, “It looks like it will be easier for us to come to an agreement with you than with this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who lodged themselves in Kyiv and took the entire Ukrainian people hostage.” [NYT / Anton Troianovski]
• Putin also floated the idea of engaging in talks with Ukraine hosted in Minsk, Belarus. Those negotiations would be predicated on Ukraine “demilitarizing” and agreeing to a nonaligned status, giving up its European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization ambitions. [Reuters]
• Meanwhile, Putin has shored up support from a few strongmen. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad approved of Putin’s invasion, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said his country was with Putin, and Belarus has provided military assistance; but other leaders, like Jair Bolsonaro, who have supported Putin in the past, have remained silent after the invasion. [Washington Post / Terrence McCoy and Chico Harlan]
• Meanwhile, European leaders, as well as those in Britain and the US, have issued a new round of sanctions against Russia, including against Putin. The EU, Britain, and the US have agreed as of Friday to freeze the foreign assets of Putin and his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. [AP / Raf Casert and Aamer Madhani]
• And thousands of Russians throughout the country have risked arrest or worse protesting Putin’s invasion, in cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg. More than 1,800 had been arrested as of Thursday night, and several high-profile Russians risked their livelihoods by speaking out against the war. [Guardian / Andrew Roth]

Three former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd’s murder were convicted Friday of violating his civil rights; two by failing to intervene in his murder, and all three by failing to get him medical help. [CNN / Julia Jones and Christina Maxouris]

• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased mask guidelines for much of the US on Friday. [NPR / Pien Huang and Carmel Wroth]
• Three men pleaded guilty Wednesday to terror charges stemming from a planned attack on power grids in support of white supremacist ideology and an attempt to start a race war. [Justice Department]
• A bill to create a commission to explore reparations for Black people has enough votes to pass the House of Representatives, more than 30 years after it was first introduced, according to advocates. [Washington Post / Emmanuel Felton]

What’s the four-letter name of Zeus's wife?

Solve today's new Vox crossword puzzle, and stay tuned for more puzzles coming out Monday through Saturday.

“Go fuck yourself.”

[Reported response from Ukrainian border guards on Snake Island in the Black Sea, to a Russian naval ship demanding they surrender. All 13 of the guards were killed.]

Vladimir Putin says Ukraine isn’t a country. He’s wrong. [Spotify]

Read more from Vox

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Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, explained

US sanctions will squeeze Russia — but they’re unlikely to stop the war in Ukraine

The Ukrainian refugee crisis has already begun

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could make many, many things more expensive

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