After waiting five months to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Loretta Lynch becomes the nation’s first African-American female attorney general, the top post in the Justice Cabinet.  Her nomination was held up over a human trafficking debate in the Senate.  Never before has an attorney general confirmation  been delayed this long.

Lynch was confirmed in the Senate 56 to 43. All Democrats voted for her, along with 10 Republicans: Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Rob Portman (Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). (Huffington Post reports).

Loretta Lynch currently serves as a U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010.  She was born in North Carolina as the daughter of a school librarian and a Baptist minister.  Lynch is a graduate of Harvard University and Law School.