Ketanji Brown Jackson Swearing in Ceremony

Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn in to the Supreme Court, shattering a glass ceiling as the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court.

The 51-year-old Jackson is the court’s 116th justice and she took the place Thursday of the justice she once worked for.

Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement took effect at noon.

Moments later, joined by her family, Jackson recited the two oaths required of Supreme Court justices, one administered by Breyer and the other by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Breyer said in a letter to President Joe Biden that his retirement would take effect at noon, after nearly 28 years on the nation’s highest court.

Breyer, 83, is leaving the Supreme Court at the end of a term that has seen no shortage of blockbuster cases, the most consequential of which was its decision Friday to overrule Roe v. Wade, as well as rulings expanding gun rights for the first time in a decade and in favor of religious rights.

"It has been my great honor to participate as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the rule of law," Breyer told Biden in his letter Wednesday.

Breyer told the president that he understands Jackson "is prepared to take the prescribed oaths to begin her service as the 116th member of this court." It's unclear when she will take constitutional and judicial oaths required by justices before they can begin their duties.

Appointed to the Supreme Court by former President Bill Clinton in 1994, Breyer announced in January his plans to step down at the end of the term, giving Mr. Biden the opportunity to make his first appointment to the high court. The president announced Jackson as his nominee in late February, and the Senate approved her nomination less than two months later.

Justice Stephen Breyer retirement letter

(CBS News)