“Every single Republican blocked Ketanji Brown Jackson’s SCOTUS appointment.”

Social media remembrances on Martin Luther King Jr. Day included shoutouts to prominent Black leaders, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who became the first Black woman appointed to the court in 2022.

Occupy Democrats, a liberal advocacy group, encouraged its followers to be skeptical of Republican leaders who celebrated King’s civil rights legacy.

“Every single Republican blocked Ketanji Brown Jackson’s SCOTUS appointment and (did) everything they could to prevent the 1st African American woman from being seated,” read the text inside of a photo in an Occupy Democrats post on Facebook.

The Jan. 16 post also claimed all Republicans voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018. “Remember this while the MAGAs all post about Martin Luther King Jr.,” the Facebook post concluded.

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Occupy Democrats retracted the post after we asked them about it.

The claim was originally shared Jan. 15 on Twitter by Dash Dobrofsky, the author of a political newsletter called The Gen Z Perspective. Dobrofsky replied to the tweet and corrected himself a few hours after it was posted. 

Jackson was confirmed to the Supreme Court on a 53-47 vote on April 7, 2022, according to the Senate roll call. Three Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah — joined all 50 Democrats in voting to confirm Jackson.

In October 2018, all but two Republicans voted to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Murkowski voted present and Sen. Steve Daines of Montana did not vote. One Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, joined 49 Republicans in voting yes. The final vote tally was 50-48. Supreme Court nominations require a simple majority to pass in the Senate.

Our ruling

Social media posts claimed, “Every single Republican blocked Ketanji Brown Jackson’s SCOTUS appointment.”

Three Republican senators voted to confirm Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

We rate this claim False.