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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer speaks during an event at the Library of Congress, in Washington, on Feb. 17.Evan Vucci/The Associated Press

Liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will officially retire on Thursday, paving the way for President Joe Biden’s appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson to be sworn in to the lifetime position to replace him, the court said on Wednesday.

Jackson, 51, is set to become the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s top judicial body after being confirmed by the Senate on April 7. Breyer, 83, has served on the court since 1994 and announced his plans to retire in January. He will retire at noon (1600 GMT) on Thursday shortly after the court issues the last of its rulings of its current term.

“It has been my great honour to participate as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the Rule of Law,” Breyer said in a letter to Biden.

Breyer, the court’s oldest justice, often found himself in dissent on a court that has moved ever rightward, including last Friday when its conservative majority overturned the constitutional right to abortion recognized in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

Breyer also dissented in another major ruling last week when the court’s conservatives endorsed for the first time a right under the U.S. Constitution to carry a handgun in public.

Jackson’s confirmation by the Senate marked a victory for Biden, who has sought to infuse the federal judiciary with a broader range of backgrounds.

Jackson, who served early in her career as a Supreme Court clerk for Breyer, will become the sixth woman justice ever. For the first time, four women will serve on the court together. She will take Breyer’s place on the liberal bloc of a court with a 6-3 conservative majority whose actions in recent weeks illustrate a willingness to boldly assert its power by taking up and decisively ruling on contentious issues.

Aside from landmark decisions on gun rights and abortion rulings, the court this term has issued a series of rulings expanding religious rights, chipping away at the wall separating church and state.

In just the past two weeks, the court allowed more public funding of private schools that teach and promote religion – including those that bar LGBT students and teachers – and backed a Washington state public high school football coach who was suspended for leading Christian prayers with players on the field after games.

The court’s conservative wing was bolstered by the 2020 addition of former President Donald Trump’s third appointee, Amy Coney Barrett. Her appointment changed the court’s dynamics by marginalizing Chief Justice John Roberts, making it possible for its conservative bloc to amass the five votes needed to decide cases without him.

Roberts is considered more of an incrementalist conservative. Trump’s two other appointees were Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

The conservative majority may endure for years – possibly decades – and has signalled interest in other big changes to the law.

Race will loom large over the Supreme Court’s next term, which begins in October. One major case could end affirmative action policies used by colleges and universities in their admissions processes to increase their enrolment of Black and Hispanic students to achieve campus diversity. Ending such policies has been another goal of conservatives.

Another major case involving Alabama’s U.S. congressional district map, which a lower court found discriminated against Black voters, could further weaken the Voting Rights Act, a landmark 1965 federal law that prohibits racially biased actions in voting.

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