Day One of the four-day confirmation process of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has concluded. She will face marathon questioning by the 22 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee starting Tuesday at 9AM ET.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said during her opening statement Monday that she "loves" the U.S. Constitution and acknowledges that her role as a judge “is a limited one.”
"During this hearing, I hope you will see how much I love this country, the Constitution, and the rights that make us free.I decide cases from a neutral posture," she said.
"I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath," she continued. "I know that my role as a judge is a limited one – that the Constitution empowers me only to decide cases and controversies that are properly presented. And I know that my judicial role is further constrained by careful adherence to precedent."
Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson gave her opening statement Monday, saying she “could never fill” the shoes of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, who has served on the bench with “integrity, civility and grace.”
“It is extremely humbling to be considered for Justice Breyer’s seat, and I know that I could never fill his shoes. But if confirmed, I would hope to carry on his spirit,” Jackson said.
“Members of this committee, if I am confirmed, I commit to you that I will work productively to support and defend the Constitution and this grand experiment of American democracy that has endured over these past 246 years,” she added.
{{#rendered}}Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said during her opening statement Monday that she’s “concerned” by Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Jackson Brown’s lack of judicial philosophy.
“I was concerned during our conversation earlier this month when you told me that you really didn't have a judicial philosophy,” Blackburn said. “The American people deserve a Supreme Court justice with a documented commitment to the text of the Constitution and the rule of law, not a judicial activist who will attempt to make policy from the bench.
“Without a judicial philosophy a judge is legally adrift and will be inclined to consider policy rather than law,” she added.
Republicans are trying to establish whether Jackson holds an originalist view or if she sees the U.S. Constitution as a living document that evolves over time. Jackson has previously said her judicial philosophy “is to approach all cases with professional integrity, meaning strict adherence to the rule of law, keeping an open mind, and deciding each issue in a transparent, straightforward manner, without bias or any preconceived notion of how the matter is going to turn out.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said during her opening statement Monday that Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court "isn't about filling some quota" because she's a Black woman.
"For over 233 years, the individual making decisions that have altered the course of this country have almost exclusively been White men," Hirono said.
"Instead of celebrating the long overdue diversity Judge Jackson would bring to the court, some of my Republican colleagues and public figures have attempted to undermine your qualifications through their pejorative use of the term ‘affirmative action,’ and they have implied you were solely nominated due to your race and not for other factors," she continued. "This is incredibly offensive and condescending.
"Let me be clear," she added. "Your nomination is about not about filling a quota. It is about time. It's about time that we have a highly qualified, highly accomplished Black woman on the Supreme Court. It's about time our highest court better reflects the country it serves."
The Senate Judiciary Committee took a brief recess for lunch and will return at 2:05PM ET, when Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will be introduced and deliver her opening statement.
{{#rendered}}Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said during his opening statement that he raised questions about Ketanji Brown Jackson’s treatment of child sex offenders during her time as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission because he didn’t want to surprise the Supreme Court nominee with the questions during her confirmation hearings.
“Some have asked, why did I raise these questions ahead of the hearing?” Hawley said. “Why not wait until the hearing and spring them on Judge Jackson, as it were? And my answer to that is very simple. I'm not interested in trapping Judge Jackson. I'm not interested in trying to play gotcha. I'm interested in her answers, because I found in our time together that she was enormously thoughtful and enormously accomplished and I suspect has a coherent view and explanation.
“I think she deserves the chance to talk about it,” he added. “I think the American people deserve the chance to hear her answers.”
Supporters and opponents of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination gathered outside the Supreme Court Monday as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee gave their opening statements during her confirmation hearing.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said during his opening statement that the same Democrats pushing for Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first Black female on the Supreme Court had filibustered a nomination by then-President George W. Bush of Janice Rogers Brown, a Black conservative.
“As to the historic nature of your appointment, I understand,” Graham told Jackson during Monday’s confirmation hearing. “But when I get lectured about this from my Democratic colleagues, I remember Janice Rogers Brown, an African-American woman, that was filibustered by the same people praising you.
“I remember Miguel Estrada, one of the finest people I ever met, completely wiped out,” he continued, referring to Bush’s 2001 nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, whose confirmation was blocked by Democrats.
“He didn't make the cut. A well-lived life just completely ruined,” Graham said. “So if you're a Hispanic or African-American conservative, it’s about your philosophy. Now it’s going to be about the historic nature of the pick.
“It’s not gonna fly with us,” he added. “We're used to it by now, at least I am. So it's not gonna matter a bit to any of us. We're going to ask you what we think you need to be asked.”
{{#rendered}}Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the Obama White House turned over hundreds of thousands of documents concerning Ketanji Brown Jackson during her time as vice chair at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, but he said the majority of those documents were “obviously useless” and made no mention of her.
“The Obama White House sent us roughly 68,000 pages of material,” Grassley said. “But more than 38,000 pages are repeated copies of an email thread keeping track of tweets about the [Merrick] Garland nomination. Those emails contain one tweet about Judge Jackson. More than 13,000 pages are just lists of previous nominations.
“So that leaves only 16,000 pages that we received from the White House that aren’t obviously useless like all the other documents we received,” he continued. “But, for comparison, the White House has still withheld 48,000 pages under the Presidential Records Act and FOIA exemptions. That’s a lot of hiding.”
Grassley added that the Obama White House records indicate that a co-founder of the left-wing advocacy group Demand Justice “played an important role on Judge Jackson’s nominations to the Sentencing Commission and the district court” and “even interviewed Judge Jackson about a nomination to the Sentencing Commission.”
“It would be helpful to know what the Demand Justice co-founder learned during that process and why they so strongly support Judge Jackson,” he said.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearings won't be a "spectacle" like the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“We will conduct a thorough, exhaustive examination of Judge Jackson's record and views," Grassley said. "We won't try to turn this into a spectacle based upon alleged process fouls.
"Good news on that front: we're off to a very good start. Unlike the start to the Kavanaugh hearings, we didn't have repeated, choreographed interruptions of Chairman Durbin during his opening statements like Democrats interrupted me for more than an hour during my opening statement on the Kavanaugh hearings," he added.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during his opening statement that Republicans’ claims that Jackson is soft on crime “fly in the face of pledges my colleagues made that they would approach your nomination with civility and respect.”
“I'm confident the American people will see through these attacks and any other last minute attempts to derail your confirmation," Durbin said.
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President Biden said Monday that his Supreme Court nominee is a "brilliant legal mind."
With Democrats holding the Senate majority, the odds are extremely low that Republicans in the chamber can sidetrack President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee – Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson - from winning confirmation and making history as the first Black female on the nation’s highest court.
But that won’t stop some GOP senators with potential national ambitions who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee from taking advantage of the national spotlight afforded by Jackson’s confirmation hearing – which begins on Monday – as they take aim at the president’s nominee and potentially create some buzz-worthy moments that resonate among conservative voters.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas – who ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and who is considering another run – sits on the committee. So do Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who are all considered by pundits as potential White House hopefuls in the 2024 cycle. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee – who some view as a possible Republican running mate in the next presidential race – also sits on the committee.
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{{#rendered}}The Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will begin Monday in the Senate, marking President Biden's first nomination to the high court.
With Democrats in narrow control of the Senate and Jackson receiving three GOP votes in the past for her confirmation to a federal appellate court, Jackson heads into the hearings on a solid path toward confirmation.
But Republicans don't intend to let her off easy, raising concerns on everything from her past work as a public defender representing Guantanamo Bay detainees and whether she was too lenient on sex offenders as a district court judge.
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Hawley, in a recent Twitter thread, highlighted Jackson's record as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and argued that she has a history of "letting child porn offenders off the hook."
Hawley told Politico after meeting Jackson that he liked her "personally," but had issues with her record on crime.
CNN and The Washington Post have reported that Jackson's record was taken out of context and that she has "mostly followed the common judicial sentencing practices" in her cases. A fact-check analysis from the Washington Post said that Hawley's notes were "selective" and "lacking significant context" which Hawley has pushed back on as well. The Washington Post claims he "ignores a long debate within the judicial community about whether mandatory minimums were too high." Hawley has pushed back on the fact check on Twitter.
"Judge Jackson recommended eliminating the five-year minimum sentence for child porn, It's right there in the report," he said in response to the Washington Post's point that the U.S. Sentencing Commission was a bipartisan commission, and that their recommendation was unanimous.
Senate Democrats have fast-tracked Judge Jackson's confirmation, despite a lengthy paper trail and the many professional hats she has worn:
– Supreme Court law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer, whose seat she would fill
– Private attorney at four elite law firms
– Federal public defender (the last justice with such significant experience defending criminal defendants was Thurgood Marshall)
– Member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which during her tenure enacted bipartisan reforms to reduce disparate prison time for certain drug offenders
– Federal district court judge for eight years
– Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where three current justices once served
Three Republicans voted for her in June for that job: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
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{{#rendered}}Coverage for this event has ended.