Loretta Lynch is set to take over as the top U.S. law enforcement official Monday when she is sworn in as the nation’s new attorney general.

Vice President Joe Biden will lead the ceremony at the Justice Department.

Lynch will be the first African American woman to serve as attorney general.  She follows Eric Holder, who was the first black man to hold the job before stepping down after six years.

The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Lynch, ending a six-month process that included disagreements over her support of President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration and delays caused by other contentious legislation.

She takes over the Justice Department with less than two years left in Obama’s term, and at a time of heightened scrutiny of police conduct and civil rights in the United States with officer-involved deaths that have drawn large protests.

Some critics faulted Holder for what they said were actions that were too quick to criticize police in those cases.
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