The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday began considering President Joe Biden Ketanji Brown Jackson’s candidacy for the first black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, and its Democratic chairman launched a preemptive attack on Republican accusations of being soft on crime.
Republicans are expected to question her about her professional experience and judicial philosophy.
Last month, Biden nominated Jackson, 51, for a lifetime job on America’s highest judiciary to replace outgoing Liberal Judge Steven Breuer, staging a confirmation battle in a divided Senate.
In his opening statement, Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the Democratic Party, thwarted the attacks that have raged in the conservative media for weeks.
He described her history in the criminal justice system and noted that she came from a law enforcement family. (Her brother was a police officer.)
“Yet despite this shared family experience, despite your track record, we have heard claims that you are softly quoting crimes,” Durbin said.
“These baseless accusations are unfair.”
But Republicans quickly signaled they intended to test her tenure as a lawyer defending low-income clients.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday began considering President Joe Biden Ketanji Brown Jackson’s candidacy for the first black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (left) shakes hands with Jackson as Republican Chuck Grassley watches ahead of Monday’s hearing.
The hearing began in a packed committee room on Monday and will continue for several days.
Republicans have already announced their attacks in the media.
Republican Josh Hawley said last week he found a “disturbing pattern” in Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders.
“Judge Jackson has a habit of unhooking child porn offenders for their heinous crimes, both as a judge and as a politician,” he said in a lengthy Twitter thread. She’s been advocating this since law school.
“This goes beyond being ‘soft on crime’. I am concerned that this recording is endangering our children.”
A paper circulated by Republicans to the committee said she “usually handed down light sentences, but the lightest of all the categories judged by the Judicial Republicans were in child pornography cases,” according to Politico.
Durban also staved off criticism that she would be nothing more than a stamp on Biden.
“Because it will be the critics,” he said, “I have four words: look at the records.”
He began his statement by noting the historic nature of her appointment.
“No judge was a black woman,” he said. “You, Judge Jackson, can be the first.
It’s not easy being first. Often you have to be the best. In a way, the most daring.
“Many are not prepared to face the heat, the thoroughness we deal with in the bright light of the national spotlight.
“But your presence here today, your willingness to endure this process, will inspire millions of Americans who will see themselves in you.”
Jackson entered the busy hearing room, where she was greeted by committee members and well-wishers as she took her seat alone at the witness table.
Senior Republican member Senator Chuck Grassley promised a thorough, “exhaustive” study.
He said the Republicans would not try to make it into a spectacle.
“However, we will be asking difficult questions about Judge Jackson’s judicial philosophy,” he continued.
In any Supreme Court appointment, the most important thing I look at is the candidate’s perspective on the law, the philosophy of justice, and the role of the judge in our constitutional system.
“I will see if Judge Jackson is upholding the Constitution as originally understood.”
He also made it clear that her time as a criminal defense attorney would be subject to special scrutiny, explaining that it would be fair to investigate “criminal attorneys who disagree with our criminal laws and want to undermine the laws they have with political differences.”
Jackson is expected to deliver the opening speech later on Monday.
The 22 members of the committee will then spend Tuesday and Wednesday questioning her about her track record and philosophy.
Her nomination fulfilled Biden’s 2020 campaign promise to name a black woman in court.
And if confirmed, she would become the third black judge after Thurgood Marshall, who retired in 1991, and Clarence Thomas, who remains on the court.