The Senate Judiciary Committee opened Supreme Court confirmation hearings Monday, with Republicans promising pointed questions for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and Democrats full of praise for the first Black woman nominated for the nation’s highest court.
Jackson, 51, was to give her opening statement later Monday and answer questions on Tuesday and Wednesday from the panel’s 11 Democratic and 11 Republican senators.
Barring a significant misstep by the 51-year-old Jackson, a federal judge for the past nine years, Democrats who control the Senate by the slimmest of margins intend to wrap up her confirmation before Easter.
Democrats sought to preemptively rebut Republican criticism of her record on criminal matters as a judge and before that, as a federal public defender and a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
“Judge Jackson is not anti-law enforcement. She’s not soft on crime,” Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said, noting that members of Jackson’s family have worked in law enforcement.
Growing up in Miami, Jackson’s uncle was the city’s police chief and another uncle was a sex crimes detective. Her father was an attorney.
In fact, Jackson has won the endorsements of several top law enforcement officials. They include current law enforcement officials like Sheriff Peter Koutoujian of Middlesex County, New Jersey; Oakland, California, Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong; Savannah, Georgia, Chief of Police Roy Minter; Beth McCann, district attorney in Denver; and Karl Racine, attorney general for the District of Columbia.
All these figured signed their names to a letter endorsing Jackson. “Such direct familiarity with the experiences and challenges of law enforcement enriches her understanding of criminal justice issues,” the letter states.
Jackson has also won the support of the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest law enforcement labor organization in the United States, with more than 356,000 members. President Patrick Yoes said the union was “reassured” by her record and history and “should she be confirmed, she would approach her future cases with an open mind and treat issues related to law enforcement fairly and justly.”
Jackson has historically won support from some Republicans. Last year she joined the federal appeals court for D.C., with three Senate Republicans voting for her confirmation. This time, Republican leaders are remaining civil during the confirmation hearing, but they’re still putting critical pressure on Jackson. After all, any Supreme Court nominee should be able to answer hardball questions.
The committee’s senior Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, promised Republicans would “ask tough questions about Judge Jackson’s judicial philosophy,” without turning the hearings into a ”spectacle.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., supported Jackson’s confirmation as an appellate judge last year. But he suggested he might vote against her this time.
Graham noted that Democrats had opposed some past Republican judicial nominees who were Black or Hispanic, and he said that he and his GOP colleagues would let Jackson’s race deter them from asking tough questions.
He said of some criticism from the left: “Bottom line here is, It’s about ‘We’re all racist if we ask hard questions.’ That’s not going to fly with us.”
Some conservative legal gurus have voiced skepticism about Jackson’s record on sentencing.
“She appears to have followed the guidelines, at the low end of the sentencing range, as most judges do,” Andrew C. McCarthy, a Fox News contributor and a former U.S. prosecutor, wrote in the pages of the National Review. “Undoubtedly, Jackson — a progressive who worked as a criminal-defense lawyer — is more sympathetic to criminals than I am. If I were a judge, I’m sure I’d impose at least marginally more severe sentences than she has.”
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, once described as a rising star, has taken issue with Jackson’s record on sex offenses.
Hawley faced criticism for neglecting to compare Jackson’s rulings with those of other judges, but he may still use this confirmation hearing as an opportunity to boost his national profile and raise funds for the Republican National Committee.
Other well-known Republicans, like Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, may take a similar approach… and they may clash with other Republicans who would just as soon not pursue a scorched-earth approach to Jackson’s nomination.
The Horn News and The Associated Press contributed to this article.