On Thursday, New Jersey set the first and youngest black woman, Fabiana Pierre-Louis, to be on the Supreme Court after unanimously being voted in.

Pierre-Louis, 39, will replace Walter Timpone on the chair after he goes into retirement at 70 years old. Sen. Troy Singleton, D-Burlington speaks up on this, saying “Today is a historic day, so there’s no way to mince words about that. But what makes it even more special is she is uniquely well-qualified for this opportunity, not because of the color of her skin, but because as Martin Luther King said, the content of her character, and her great accuracy.”

Pierre-Louis, was born in New York City, to immigrant parents from Haiti. She graduated from Rutgers Law School. After law school, she clerked for John Wallace, an associate justice worker, and specialized in cases like public corruption, child exploitation, narcotics, and fraud. After clerking, she went on for 9 years afterwards to serve in all three branches in the district of New Jersey, and now she is the first black woman on a chair in New Jersey’s supreme court.

During the hearing, Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, chairman of the judiciary committee says “I haven’t found one person to say one negative thing about this person… and that is hard, I thought you were too young. I say that about most people your age that are looking to ascend to the bench, and that’s just my knee-jerk reaction and I believe I would have been wrong with that.” Because of her young age, Pierre-Louis could spend over 30 years on the court before retirement.

“The fact that I sit here today with the opportunity to sit on the court is beyond words, I understand the importance and magnitude of my nomination to the highest court in the state,” she stated at the hearing.