WASHINGTON — Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson emerged Wednesday after two grueling days of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee after she weathered escalating Republican attacks on her state but convinced Democrats she would become the first black woman on the Supreme Court. .
Republicans’ questioning of President Biden’s nominee became increasingly hostile as they mounted their criticisms of what they portrayed as a pattern of leniency in her denunciation of child molesters and sought to portray her as a liberal on race, gender, weapons and abortion rights.
Despite early promises from Republican leaders that the process would be characterized by decency and respect, the hearings were a blood-curdling Senate affair, no less bitter or partisan than their immediate predecessors.
Even Senator Ben Sasse, the Republican from Nebraska, expressed annoyance at “the craziness we see here” of “robbing people” in front of the cameras.
But despite the erratic Judge Jackson he endured, there was no indication that Republicans had succeeded in derailing a confirmation that could be approved along party lines early next month.
Reflecting on the historic nature of that moment as her testimony drew to a close, Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat and the only black member of the committee, said, reminded Judge Jackson – and the country – of the significance of her quest, which brought tears to the nominee as he cited Harriet Tubman’s struggle from slavery to freedom.
“You are my star. You are my harbinger of hope,” he told her. “This country is getting better and better.”
Overall, however, the two-day marathon of interrogation was a controversial and at times bizarre affair. Judge Jackson was asked about children’s books, the degree of her religious faith on a numerical scale, and her definition of the word “woman.”
The hearing steadily deteriorated on Wednesday as Republican senators repeatedly attacked Judge Jackson over her sentencing decisions on specific child abuse cases after spending much of Tuesday sifting through her with similar questions. They heatedly demanded answers from Judge Jackson, interrupting her repeatedly as she tried to answer. Illinois and the chairman of the committee.
In a particularly heated argument, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham urged Judge Jackson to ask why she hadn’t been tougher on consumers of child sexual abuse images, saying his opinion “got their asses in jail.” “.
Judge Jackson outlined how such cases had changed since Congress passed a law that improved sentences based on the number of images found in a suspect’s possession. At the time of the law, such images came mainly through the mail, and the number of images indicated how much effort someone had gone to in obtaining them.
But, she tried to explain about Mr. Graham’s repeated interruptions, that in the Internet age, huge amounts of images can be obtained with a few mouse clicks.
“You can do this for 15 minutes, and all of a sudden you’re looking at 30, 40, 50 years in prison,” she said. Mr Graham intervened and said, “Good – absolutely good.”
Mr. Graham’s tantrums were particularly striking, coming from a senator who voted less than a year ago to confirm Judge Jackson before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. His aggressive questioning of Judge Jackson this week suggested he was unlikely to support her in the nation’s highest court.
It also provoked an angry response from Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, a former Democratic Judiciary Committee chairman and senior Senate member, who said he had not seen the level of contempt shown to Judge Jackson in have been in the Chamber for 48 years.
“You had a Republican member who went way too long with his allotted time, ignored committee rules, harassed the candidate, didn’t even let her answer the questions,” Mr. Leahy said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Republican polls addressed a variety of social issues that fuel conservative voters in the run-up to midterm election season, including anti-racism and critical race theory. Mr Cruz picked up a series of questions about transgender athletes Tuesday night, demanding that Judge Jackson define what a woman is. The Republican National Committee stuck to its accusations that Judge Jackson was racially divisive.
“The conservative movement should be alarmed not only by her track record as an activist judge, but also by her willingness to advocate for divisive anti-American concepts such as critical race theory,” said Matt Schlapp, a close ally of the United Nations. former President Donald J. Trump. and the chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference.
In a remarkable development, Judge Jackson, a Harvard graduate who is serving a six-year term on the university’s board of trustees, said that if confirmed, she would withdraw from a major case: a challenge to race-conscious admissions. of Harvard policy that the court will consider in its next term, which begins in October.
Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton broadly pushed for criminal convictions, almost accusing her of lying when she said she didn’t remember a specific case.
“Your nomination,” Mr. Durbin told Judge Jackson, “proved to be a testing ground for conspiracy theories and culture war theories.”
But at the heart of the Republicans’ attack was child crime, a fraught, deeply uncomfortable topic that appeals to all Americans but carries special weight with the conservative fringe, fueled by false QAnon conspiracy theories that a cabal of pedophiles rules Washington.
Republicans far beyond the Judiciary Committee were clearly focused not only on animating their own voters, but also on potentially peeling off one or two Senate Democrats — most likely Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia or Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — and the jeopardizing Judge Jackson’s elevation to the Supreme Court.
“Can Joe Manchin explain to West Virginians why he supports this pedophile apologist?” Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former president, demanded… on Twitter†
To add to the fire, Cruz urged Judge Jackson to request specific details about her sentencing from those accused of sexual abuse, citing a case where she gave a defendant two years in prison while the criminal directive was about seven years.
“I’m asking you to take this opportunity to explain to this committee and the American people why 100 percent of the time you have people committing despicable crimes, and you have the language that says they are despicable crimes, but then you sentence them to very, very light sentences,” Mr Cruz said.
He was followed by Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who originally raised the issue of sentencing before the hearings. mr. Hawley repeatedly demanded that Judge Jackson say whether she regretted giving another perpetrator, Wesley Hawkins, a “slap on the wrist,” whom Mr Hawley said had been re-arrested after his release.
“What I Regret,” she replied“is that during a hearing about my qualifications to be a Supreme Court judge, we spent a lot of time focusing on this small subset of my sentences.”
Judge Jackson said she had handed down sentences in more than 100 cases, sometimes longer than 25 and 30 years. “I’ve said what I’m going to say about these matters,” she said at one point. “No case can replace a judge’s entire criminal record.”
Democrats also tried to refute claims that Judge Jackson’s conviction history was extreme, noting that it fell into the mainstream of federal judges. Delaware Democrat Senator Chris Coons called the Republican attack “an attempt to distract from your broad support, your deep track record, your excellent intellectual and legal credentials.”
Whether the attack line will have any impact is unclear. Mr Manchin was in Paris for an international energy conference and had no comment on the hearings. Ms Sinema did not respond to a request for comment.
Three Republicans voted less than a year ago to raise Judge Jackson to the appeals court, but Graham seemed unwilling to repeat his vote. Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins said she was still investigating the matter, and Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski could not be reached for comment.
Another undecided Republican, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, said he would meet with Judge Jackson after the hearings and then make his decision.