The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday. She would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
Barring a major blunder by the 51-year-old Jackson, who has served as a federal judge for the past nine years, Democrats, who have a razor-thin majority in the Senate, want to clinch her confirmation before Easter.
Jackson is going to make an opening statement Monday afternoon. It will be followed by two days of questioning from the committee’s 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans. Thomas B. Griffith, a retired judge from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Lisa M. Fairfax, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, will give her an introduction.
Last year, Jackson testified before the same committee after President Joe Biden appointed her to a federal appeals court in Washington, just down the hill from the Supreme Court, to fill a vacancy.
Her testimony will provide the most comprehensive look yet at the Harvard-trained lawyer with a career that includes two years as a federal public defender for most Americans and the Senate. Thurgood Marshall was the first Black American to serve on the nation’s highest court. Since him, she is the first nominee with considerable criminal defense expertise.
Ketanji Brown Jackson: First Black Woman Justice
Jackson would be the third Black justice on the Supreme Court, after Marshall and his successor, Justice Clarence Thomas. It is in addition to being the first Black woman on the court.
The American Bar Association assesses judicial nominees. It gave Jackson its highest rating on Friday, unanimously stating that she is “well qualified.”
The NAACP’s general counsel, Janette McCarthy Wallace, expressed her delight at the prospect of a Black woman being appointed to a high court seat.
Wallace stated, “Representation matters. It’s critical to have diverse experiences on the bench. It should reflect the rich cultural diversity of this country.”
“Alarming Pattern”
Given that Jackson’s confirmation would not change the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, it’s unclear how vigorously Republicans will go after her.
Nonetheless, some Republicans have hinted that Jackson’s nomination may be useful to try to paint Democrats as soft on crime. It is a topic that has emerged in GOP midterm election campaigns. Biden has appointed several former public defenders to life-tenured judges. Jackson also served on the United States Sentencing Commission. It is an independent commission that Congress established to eliminate disparities in federal prison sentences.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., drew attention to one possible line of assault. Last week, Hawley stated on Twitter, “I’ve noticed an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children,” in a thread that the Republican National Committee mirrored. When Hawley questioned Jackson last year before voting against her appeals court nomination, he did not bring up the subject.
The White House slammed the critique, calling it “toxic and weakly presented misinformation”. Jackson’s record shows she is dubious of the range of jail terms for child pornography cases, according to Douglas Berman, an Ohio State law professor. “But so too were prosecutors in the majority of her cases and so too are district judges nationwide,” Berman said on his blog.
Along with Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Hawley is one of several committee Republicans who are considering running for president in 2024, and their ambitions may clash with those of other Republicans who would rather not take a hard line on Jackson’s nomination.
Ketanji Brown Jackson changing American History
In February, Biden announced his choice for Jackson. Thereby, fulfilling a campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court for the first nominee in American history. Justice Stephen Breyer announced in January that he will retire this summer after 28 years on the bench. Jackson would respectfully take his seat.
Early in her legal career, Jackson worked as a high court law clerk for Breyer.
Even though Breyer’s seat will not technically open until the summer, Democrats are working rapidly to confirm Jackson. They have no votes to spare in a 50-50 Senate, which they control thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote.
They are not, however, moving as quickly as Republicans did when they appointed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. It was just over a month after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and just days before the 2020 presidential election.
Barrett, the third of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, solidified the conservative majority on the court when she replaced liberal Ginsburg.
Jackson was confirmed by the Senate last year by a vote of 53-44, with three Republicans voting in her favor. It’s unclear how many Republicans will support her this time around.
Personal Life
Ketanji Brown Jackson is married to a surgeon in Washington, Patrick Johnson. Their two girls, one in college and the other in high school, are their only children. She is related to Paul Ryan, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives from Wisconsin. He was also the Republican vice-presidential contender in 2012. Ryan has expressed his support for Jackson’s candidacy.
Even though she has been a judge since 2013, Jackson has remarked about how her children have kept her grounded. “People listen and generally do what I tell them to do,” she told an audience in Athens, Georgia, in 2017.
Her girls, on the other hand, “make it very clear I know nothing, I should not tell them anything, much less give them any orders, that is, if they talk to me at all,” Jackson added.