Two Biden judicial nominees delivered testimony to a Senate committee on Wednesday

Two individuals tapped by President Biden as judicial nominees delivered testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has been selected to serve on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, who was picked to serve on the 7th Circuit, are both black women who have previously worked as public defenders, according to The Hill.

"If you don't have judges who are able to do their duty ... then we've lost that very important check that the founders wanted us to have," Jackson said, according to the outlet. "It's the way our government was constructed. So the independence of the judicial branch is crucial."

The Hill noted that prior to "her confirmation to the district court in 2013, Jackson served as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Before that, she worked in the D.C. federal public defender's office and at a private law firm. Three years after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1996, Jackson clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer," the outlet reported. "Jackson-Akiwumi joined the D.C. office of the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder last year, following 10 years as an assistant federal public defender in Illinois."