Jackson faces tight confirmation vote as U.S. Supreme Court justice as GOP opposition hardens

Ketanji Brown Jackson before the Senate: My role as a judge is limited 4:48 (CNN) — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham broke ranks in the Obama era, voting for the president’s two Supreme Court nominees. Under Joe Biden, Graham has endorsed dozens of lower court appointees, including Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Washington Circuit Court of Appeals last year. But now that GOP opposition is hardening to Jackson’s Supreme Court run, Graham has taken a very different approach: She has sharpened her attack on the candidate, assuming she will vote against him. of her appointment. In an interview with CNN, Graham blamed Biden, first for voting for the obstruction of Janice Rogers Brown, a black woman chosen by George W. Bush to serve on the Washington Circuit, nearly two decades ago, and more recently for elect Jackson over District Judge Michelle Childs, whom Graham was pushing for the high court. “She has made a political decision,” Graham said of Biden. “These are all political decisions. Every president’s choice of the Supreme Court has a political calculation. He made the decision ‘I’m not going to go the consensus way. I’m going to go the grassroots way.’ my decision based on your decision.” The recognition underscores the abrupt change in the treatment of Supreme Court nominees over the past two decades: from a time when senators used to be deferential to presidents of both parties to a more recent one when it is difficult to even win a handful of votes from the opposing party, given the intense partisan battles. Each side blames the other for the deterioration, with Republicans criticizing Democrats for their treatment of Bush and Trump candidates, while Democrats are quick to point out that Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell maintained a vacant seat for more than a year to let then-president Donald Trump put his mark on the court. Biden Picks Ketanji Brown Jackson to US Supreme Court 6:36 Jackson Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings Go Now Now, as Jackson’s marathon hearings wind down and confirmation votes are scheduled, it’s almost Surely Jackson – a 51-year-old judge, educated in the so-called Ivy League (a select group of private universities in the US), who would be the first black woman in history to sit on the high court and whose credentials and His behavior has been praised by both parties — he won’t be able to win more than a few Republican votes, meaning it could be one of the closest confirmation votes in US history. “Things have changed a lot in the last 10 or 20 years,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said in an interview. “It’s very hard to really create a bipartisan unity. I hope we can do this, but as you can see, it’s going to be a struggle.” In 2018, Trump’s pick of Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed by just 50 votes to 48 — after being accused of sexual assault, which he angrily denied — the narrowest margin of any judicial appointee since post-Reconstruction. Civil war. Amy Coney Barrett, for her part, did not get any Democratic votes, and was confirmed by only 52 for, 48 against, over Democratic objections that the nomination was pushed just days before the election. The narrow margins are a stark difference from the 96-3 vote enjoyed by liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993 and the 98-0 vote won by conservative Antonin Scalia in 1986. In Jackson’s case , Republicans will almost certainly vote against her en masse, raising concerns about her sentencing decisions in child pornography cases as a district judge, her representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees as an attorney, as well as her refusal to take positions on some burning issues, such as changing the size of the Supreme Court. The ‘qualities’ of the candidates for the US Supreme Court 2:30Jackson has defended her career, saying that she cannot comment on political issues such as the size of the high court, while maintaining that the fact of having been a lawyer it does not mean that you have the same opinions as your client. And in several heated exchanges with Republicans, Jackson has said her sentencing decisions in the child pornography cases were based on the evidence in each case and the limitations imposed on judges by Congress. Democrats say her sentencing decisions are within the flow of judges across the country, including many backed by Republicans. But Republicans say they don’t buy it. “She’s been eloquent and she’s done a good job in terms of her tone and demeanor,” said Senate GOP chairman John Thune of South Dakota. “But I think she has gone deeper into the sentencing guidelines, and that is starting to raise some alarm bells for our members.” Thune’s prediction is that the universe of potential Republican yes votes is three, the same number of votes Jackson received for her current seat. “Right now, she probably won’t go much further than that,” Thune said. The likely swing votes from the GOP are slim. With Graham likely casting a negative vote, it is uncertain where her support count could grow. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who is not on the Senate Judiciary Committee and voted for Jackson to the Washington Circuit last year, was close with the judge when she met with her before the hearing, saying on Wednesday that he was still assessing his position now. “Yesterday I was at the Health Committee and the Intelligence Committee. Last night I saw some of the extracts,” Collins said. “I’m not going to make a decision until the hearings are over.” Who would be Biden’s Supreme Court nominee? 3:39Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who also voted for Jackson for the lower court and is not part of the panel, says she is still evaluating the nominee and that she has not yet been able to see all the hearings. Murkowski, who is running for re-election in her Republican state this year, said she had no problem with the GOP’s line of questioning over Jackson’s sentencing decisions in child pornography cases. “I think it’s a fair line of questioning whether, in fact, through her tenure on the Sentencing Commission or as a judge before, there were issues with that,” Murkowski said. That leaves a small universe of other senators, including retiring Republicans who could be positive votes. But those retiring Republicans — Sens. Pat Toomey, Richard Shelby, Richard Burr and Roy Blunt — did not comment on Jackson when asked about her Wednesday. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking questions about this important area of ​​the law and this important area for society,” Blunt said, referring to questions about her handling of child pornography cases. Sen. Rob Portman, a retiring Republican from Ohio, said he wasn’t sold on Jackson. “I have concerns,” Portman told CNN. “I have expressed them after meeting with her personally: [su] judicial philosophy … but I also have a specific concern about regulatory issues.” “She’s more on the liberal side on a lot of these issues,” Portman said. This is how a US Supreme Court justice is elected. :34Some Republicans have indicated they’re still open to endorsing her, though they’ve opposed her in the past to get on the lower court Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said, “I’m looking at it, but I’m still Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN that Jackson “is an impressive person” even though he opposed his election to the Washington Circuit last year. Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah who has broken with his party on big issues, is also seen by Democrats as a winnable vote, but Romney recently told CNN that he voted against Jackson for the Circuit. from Washington because he considered her “outside the mainstream of judicial thought,” though he said she now keeps an open mind. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a confirmation hearing to join the Supreme Court on March 21, 2022. (Credit: Sarah Silbiger/CNN) On Wednesday, Romney said he was open to endorse it, but that he would “review everything [la Comisión] I think it’s important, and I’ll take a look at it myself and make that decision.” For his part, Graham has had to reconcile his support for Jackson serving on the second-highest court in the country with his likely opposition to his ascension to the Supreme Court. At Wednesday’s hearing, Graham lashed out at Jackson’s sentencing decisions for child pornographers and even criticized her as an “activist” for having an immigration sentence overturned while serving as a district judge, all issues that could have been raised before supporting it for the Washington Circuit.” The bottom line is that the difference between the Washington circuit courts and the appellate courts, the Supreme Court, is the ability of a judge on the Supreme Court to make the law different than it is today, and I think that’s something that everybody is taking into consideration,” Graham said in the interview. “It’s a different game.” Graham added or that if Biden had chosen Childs, she “could have gotten him a lot of votes.” Now, Graham said, “I think this is going to be very hard on Judge Brown,” she said, referring to Jackson. With information from Lauren Fox, Ali Zaslav, Morgan Rimmer and Ted Barrett.