U.S. Supreme Court nominee Jackson deflects Republican attacks

[March 24, 2022]  By Moira Warburton, Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republicans on Wednesday pressed their attacks on a range of issues against Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's nominee to become the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, as she inched closer to the end of an intense two days of questioning with Democrats coming to her defense.

Jackson, who had remained even-tempered throughout marathon questioning during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, showed impatience over repeated questions posed by Republicans who accused her of being too lenient as a judge in sentencing child pornography offenders.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley again pressed her on one child pornography case involving an 18-year-old defendant in which Jackson imposed a three-month sentence. He asked her if she regretted the sentence.

"Senator, what I regret is that during a hearing about my qualifications to be a justice on the Supreme Court we've spent a lot of time focusing on this small subset of my sentences," Jackson responded.

Jackson since last year has served as a federal appellate judge after eight years as a federal district judge. She noted that she had sentenced more than 100 people as a judge.

Democrats and sentencing experts have said Jackson's approach to child pornography sentencing was similar to the vast majority of federal judges.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who repeatedly interrupted Jackson as she was trying to answer his questions, told her that "every judge who does what you're doing is making it easier for these children to be exploited."

"I know how serious these crimes are," Jackson said in her defense, adding that her approach was to ensure "the most serious offenders get the longest time."

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the committee's chairman, pushed back on Republican requests for more information on Jackson's child pornography cases, saying the issue had already been debated in detail over two days.

"There is an absurdity to this that is almost comical if it was not so dangerous," Democratic Senator Cory Booker said of the Republican attacks.

"You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American," Booker told Jackson, who could be seen wiping a tear from her eye.

So far, there is no sign that the Republican attacks are likely to derail Jackson's confirmation, with Democrats narrowly controlling the Senate. With a simple majority needed for confirmation and the Senate divided 50-50 between the parties, she would get the job if Democrats remain united regardless of how the Republicans vote.

HARVARD CASE

Under questioning from her former Harvard Law School classmate Senator Ted Cruz, Jackson said that if confirmed to the lifetime job she planned not to participate in a major Supreme Court case involving the university because she serves on its board of overseers.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson takes her seat as she arrives prior to start of the third day of Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings on Judge Jackson's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 23, 2022. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

The case, to be heard in the court's next term that begins in October, involves a challenge to the affirmative action admissions policy Harvard uses to increase its number of Black and Hispanic students.

Her confirmation would not change the court's ideological balance - it has a 6-3 conservative majority - but would let Biden freshen its liberal bloc with a 51-year-old jurist young enough to serve for decades. The Democratic president nominated Jackson last month to the lifetime post to succeed retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.

Facing more long hours of often-antagonistic questioning during the hearing's third day, she remained mostly unflappable, beginning most responses with a polite, "Thank you, Senator."

Durbin praised Jackson for her poise and said some Republicans had used the hearing as "an opportunity to showcase talking points for the November election" when control of Congress is up for grabs, including the argument that Democrats are "soft on crime."

"Well, you have made a mess of their stereotype," Durbin said, pointing to the fact that she has been endorsed by various law enforcement groups.

Republicans also have criticized her legal representation earlier in her career of some detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and tried to link Jackson to activist groups on the left and to "critical race theory," which argues American history and institutions are infused with racial bias.

There are signs that not all Republican senators agree with targeting Jackson's record on sentencing. Republican Senator Thom Tillis said during the hearing he was "sympathetic to some of it, not necessarily all of it" when describing claims made his colleagues. Republican Senator Mitt Romney told the Washington Post the attacks on Jackson were "off course."

Jackson's testimony is due to end on Wednesday, with outside experts scheduled for Thursday's final day of the hearing.
 

If confirmed, Jackson would be the 116th justice to serve on the high court, the sixth woman and the third Black person. With Jackson on the bench, the court for the first time would have four women and two Black justices.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Moira Warburton and Andrew Chung; Additional reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

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