The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 53-47 in favor of confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.

Vice President Kamala Harris – the first woman and first person of African American and Asian American heritage to serve in the nation’s second highest office – presided over the historic vote, with a visitors gallery filled with lawmakers, officials and Congressional staffers watching the historic proceedings.

Cheers and applause rang out through the Senate chamber after Harris gaveled out the vote; several Republicans filed out of the room amid the ovation, but Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, one of three Republicans who supported her nomination, stayed to applaud.

"Judge Jackson’s confirmation was a historic moment for our nation," President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter. "We’ve taken another step toward making our highest court reflect the diversity of America. She will be an incredible Justice, and I was honored to share this moment with her."

"It's an extraordinary day," Vice President Harris said after the vote. "And I think it's a very important statement today about who we are as a nation that we put Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on the highest court of our land."

Harris added that she was "deeply moved" and "overjoyed."

Jackson herself watched the vote live with President Biden in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

President Biden, Vice President Harris and Justice-designate Jackson will speak Friday at the White House "on the Senate’s historic, bipartisan confirmation of Judge Jackson’s nomination to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court."

"This is a great moment for Judge Jackson," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. "But it is an even greater moment for America as we rise to a more perfect union."

Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah broke ranks and joined Democrats in voting for Jackson. 

All three senators expressed similar opinions in explaining their decision to elevate Jackson’s nomination, saying while they might not always agree with her, they found her to be enormously well-qualified for the job.

"While I have not and will not agree with all of Judge Jackson’s decisions and opinions, her approach to cases is carefully considered and is generally well-reasoned," Murkowski wrote in a statement earlier this week, adding: "The support she has received from law enforcement agencies around the country is significant and demonstrates the judge is one who brings balance to her decisions."

While Jackson did not receive the overwhelming bipartisan support President Joe Biden hoped for upon announcing her nomination, the vote was still a significant bipartisan accomplishment for Biden in the narrow 50-50 Senate after Republican senators aggressively worked to paint Jackson as too liberal and soft on crime.

Republicans spent the contentious, often vitriolic hearings interrogating her sentencing record on the federal bench, including the sentences she handed down in child pornography cases, which they argued were too light. Jackson pushed back on the GOP narrative, declaring that "nothing could be further from the truth" and explaining her reasoning in detail. Democrats said she was in line with other judges in her decisions.

But with the backing of those three Republicans and all 50 Senate Democrats – including moderate Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona –  Jackson's confirmation sailed through the chamber.

"I'm proud to support her nomination to be our next Supreme Court Justice," Sinema said in a statement Thursday. "Judge Jackson brings to the bench a wealth of knowledge, more trial court experience than all other justices combined, a commitment to respect precedent, and a proven independent, pragmatic approach to judicial decisions."

Jackson’s confirmation makes history in another way: She will be the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court.

Jackson, a federal appeals court judge, will also be just the third Black justice, after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and the sixth woman. She will join two other women, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, on the liberal side of a 6-3 conservative court. With Justice Amy Coney Barrett sitting at the other end of the bench, four of the nine justices will be women for the first time in history.

"This is a joyful day," Leader Schumer, said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. "Even in the darkest times, there are bright lights. Today is one of the brightest lights."

"Three words that best describe Judge Jackson: Brilliant, beloved, belongs," Schumer said, calling it "one of the great moments of American history."

A number of senators who voted in favor of Jackson’s nomination expressed similar sentiments ahead of Thursday’s proceedings. 

“What a great day it is for the United States of America, for our system of government, for the grand march toward the fulfillment of the sacred covenant we have with one another as an American people: ‘e pluribus unum,’ out of many, one,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., one of three Black senators currently serving in Congress, said on the Senate floor. 

"Today, the members of this Senate have the opportunity to take a monumental step forward. We will vote to confirm a once-in-a-generation legal talent, a jurist with oustanding credentials and a lifetime of experience," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Senate Judiciary Panel, said ahead of the final vote. "Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation will be a glass-shattering achievement for America."

"In the years to come, long after we’ve left the Senate, one of our grandchildren may ask where we were on this historic day," Durbin said in an appeal to his colleagues, urging them to support Jackson's confirmations.

"This confirmation of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court honors the history that has come before it," Durbin added. "It honors the struggles of the past [...] This confirmation draws America one step closer – one step – to healing our nation, one step closer to a more perfect union."

Jackson, 51, will replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who at 83 is the oldest sitting member of the court. Breyer announced his retirement in late January, saying he would step down when the court’s summer recess begins, typically in late June or early July. 

The Supreme Court will begin hearing cases for the next term on Oct. 3, when Jackson will officially join the bench. The court has so far agreed to hear nine cases during the 2022-2023 session, but has not yet set dates for arguments. 

One of the cases on the docket is Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard, a case consolidated with a similar one from the University of North Carolina in which plaintiffs question the institutions’ use of race in student admissions. Jackson has pledged to sit out the court's consideration of Harvard's admissions program since she is a member of its board of overseers. 

But the court could split off the second case involving a challenge to the University of North Carolina's admissions process, which might allow her to weigh in on the issue.

Another case will be Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, which concerns a petition between the foundation of late artist Andy Warhol and photographer Lynn Goldsmith, and which could have potentially transformative effects on copyright law in the United States. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.