Live updates: Breyer expected to formally announce retirement plans, appear with Biden

That shortlist, which could grow, is topped by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, who was confirmed last year to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as one of Biden’s first judicial nominees. Brown is a favorite of the Democrats’ liberal base, in part because of her history as a former public defender, an unusual background for a Supreme Court justice.