History was made on Monday when confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, began on Capitol Hill.
Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to serve on the nation’s highest court, sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday as the 22 members of the panel began to deliver opening statements before Jackson herself was set to speak.
The hearing began with an opening statement from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, who praised Jackson’s record as a public defender and judge and addressed some Republican criticism about her views, given her broad support from left-leaning groups.
“There may be some who claim, without a shred of evidence, that you’ll be a rubber stamp for this president. For these would-be critics, I have four words: Look at the record,” Durbin said. “You have ruled for and against presidents and administrations of both parties. You’ve ruled for prosecutors and for defendants. You’ve ruled for workers and for their employers, and you’ve been faithful to the law, not to any person or political cause.”
Grassley is one of those would-be critics, speaking after Durbin to criticize left-wing support of Jackson and pointing to Democrats’ handling of the Brett Kavanaugh nomination. But he promised a thorough and critical round of questions this week.
“In any Supreme Court nomination, the most important thing I look for is the nominee’s view of the law, judicial philosophy and view on the role of a judge,” he said. “I’ll be looking to see whether Judge Jackson is committed to the Constitution as originally understood.”
Jackson was introduced Monday by Lisa Fairfax, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School, and Judge Thomas Griffith, a former federal appeals judge for the D.C. Circuit appointed by former President George W. Bush.
Tuesday and Wednesday’s sessions will consist of lawmakers questioning Jackson. On Thursday, outside witnesses and the American Bar Association — which on Friday said Jackson was “well qualified,” its highest rating — will deliver testimony.
Jackson is no stranger to this process — she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year after President Biden nominated her to replace Judge Merrick Garland as a United States circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
She received a 13-9 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee before the Senate confirmed her in a 53–44 vote, with three Republicans supporting her — Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Susan Collins, R-Maine and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
This time around, no Republican senator has publicly said they will support Jackson, though Democrats are not likely to need any GOP votes, thanks to the 2017 rules change led by then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., which allowed Supreme Court nominees to be confirmed with a simple majority vote rather than the 60 votes required to overcome the legislative filibuster.
Should all 50 Senate Democrats support her nomination, even if all 50 Senate Republicans oppose, Jackson will still be confirmed as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
But Democrats and the White House are hoping that Biden’s first — and possibly only — Supreme Court pick receives bipartisan support.
“I want to make this a bipartisan vote,” Chair Durbin said after Breyer announced his retirement. “I think it is not only good for the Supreme Court, it’s good for the Senate.”
In the last few weeks, Jackson has been pressing the flesh around Capitol Hill, meeting with 44 lawmakers — including all 22 members of the Judiciary panel — led by former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, who has served as her “sherpa” through the process.
Prior to Jackson’s nomination, Graham, who is on the Judiciary Committee, made his preference clear that he wanted the president to pick Judge J. Michelle Childs to serve on the high court, and even went on to say that Jackson’s nomination was a victory for the “radical Left” in a Twitter post.
Graham on Monday spent time calling Democrats hypocritical for not supporting diverse candidates nominated by Republicans for other roles, and he complained that Jackson was nominated instead of Childs, who he said would have gotten sure bipartisan support.
“Judge Childs would have gotten 60+ votes,” he said, saying Democrats have played a “game” to keep her from being nominated. “Now we’re facing a choice sponsored by the most radical elements of the Democratic party.”
And he looked back at how Democrats handled the nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when sexual assault accusations came out just before his confirmation hearings. Graham promised something similar would not happen for Jackson but said it would be an “interesting” week of questioning.
“I’m hoping that we can have a hearing that is respectful, is informative, is challenging,” he said, adding: “The one thing I can promise you: You will not be vilified. You will not be attacked for your religious views. You will not be accused of something that you could not defend yourself against until it was too late.”
Collins, describing their meeting as “lengthy and very productive,” suggested that she held a favorable opinion of Jackson: “Obviously, I don’t agree with her on every decision she has rendered … What I did get from her is that she takes a very thorough, careful approach in applying the law to the facts of the case, and that is what I want to see in a judge.”
A number of Republicans offered praise for Jackson after their meetings, even if she doesn’t get their votes: North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis called her “wise;” Texas Sen. John Cornyn called her “charming” and hailed her background as a public defender.
Even McConnell offered praise for their meeting, saying on the Senate floor earlier this month that Jackson is “clearly a sharp lawyer with an impressive resume,” though on Sunday he said he hasn’t decided how he’ll vote.
“We had a very good conversation in my office and I asked her, you know, typically the Supreme Court nominees of both parties have never answered the questions,” he told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “What they typically say is that something might come before me and I don’t want to prejudge how I might actually vote.”
McConnell noted that Jackson wouldn’t answer a question about her stance on court-packing, and added: “The committee will ask her all the tough questions. I haven’t made a final decision as to how I’m going to vote.”
But he did telegraph a potential strategy Republicans might use to attack Democrats during the process: “By the way, she’ll be treated much better than Democrats have typically treated Republican nominees,” referencing the contentious confirmation process for Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“I promised her that we would not have any of the Kavanaugh-like circus,” Cornyn said. “It should be a dignified and civil procedure.”
“We’re going to have a fair process and respectful process, unlike what the Democrats did to Justice Kavanaugh,” Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
That said, Barrasso said she was “clearly, very intelligent” and said they had a “very good meeting.”
“We talked about judicial philosophy. I talked about Justice [Antonin] Scalia, that … it’s the Constitution, a legal document, not a living document,” he said. “We had a very good meeting.”
“I’m less concerned about her statements than I am about [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer’s statements,” he continued. “He said she’s going to rule with empathy. A judge ought to be making decisions based on the law as written, not the way they feel about it.”
Barrasso was asked by anchor George Stephanopoulos about recent comments from Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful who has not supported a single Biden judicial nominee.
In a Twitter thread, Hawley wrote that he had “noticed an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children,” accusing her of having a “pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker.”
The Washington Post branded it as a false claim worthy of “Three Pinocchios,” which they describe as a claim containing “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.”
The White House slammed Hawley’s claims as “toxic and weakly-presented misinformation that relies on taking cherry-picked elements of her record out of context.”
On Sunday, Stephanopoulos asked Barrasso if Hawley’s remarks were fair; Barrasso replied that “he’s going to have his opportunity to question the judge as will all the members of the committee.”
“The last time we had a hearing with Kavanaugh, he was accused of being a serial rapist with no evidence whatsoever,” he continued. “So, I think we’re going to have a fair process and a respectful process, unlike what the Democrats did to Justice Kavanaugh.”
Also on “This Week,” Sen. Durbin said that Hawley is “inaccurate and unfair in his analysis.”
“Judge Jackson has been scrutinized more than any person I can think of,” he said. “This is her fourth time before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In three previous times, she came through with flying colors and bipartisan support, the last time just last year.”
“And now Sen. Hawley is making these charges that came out of nowhere,” he said. The independent fact checkers, like the Washington Post and CNN, have discredited his claims already. They should have. There’s no truth to what he says.”
“He’s part of the fringe within the Republican party,” Durbin concluded. This was a man who was fist-bumping the murderous mob that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6 of last year. He doesn’t have the credibility he thinks he does.”
Despite wanting to keep the process free from contention, such a feat might not be possible in this current Congress — though with the balance of power on the high court not in question, Republicans may keep their attacks focused on Democrats ahead of the November midterm elections rather than Jackson herself.
Democrats are hoping to move as fast as possible on Jackson’s nomination, with the goal of having her confirmed before the Senate’s two-week Easter recess, which begins on April 11.
