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Watch live as Senate Judiciary Committee begin hearing on Biden's Supreme Court nominee
Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden’s first Supreme Court nominee, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the first of her confirmation hearings. The first Black woman to be nominated to the court, she will if confirmed replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
With the Democrats in control of the Senate and the court now heavily tilted in conservatives’ favour, Ms Brown Jackson – currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia – is expected to be confirmed barring some unforseen event.
However, some Republicans have lately begun attacking her for her past work as a public defender, focusing in particular on her work defending sexual offenders. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, yesterday questioned her aggressively about supposedly lenient sentences she handed down to certain child sexual offenders.
The White House condemned his line of questioning – which is based on largely debunked misrepresentations of the decisions in question – calling it an ‘embarrassing, QAnon-signalling smear’ in reference to the conspiracy theory that the world is run by a cabal of cannibalistic paedophiles.
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Key points Judge is first Black woman nominated to Supreme Court If confirmed, Ms Brown Jackson will replace liberal Clinton appointee Stephen Breyer Some Republicans have attacked Ms Brown for record defending sexual offenders Ted Cruz is using hearings to attack critical race theory
Show latest update 1648033491 Lindsey Graham complains again about Amy Coney Barrett’s treatment
Coming off his questioning of Ms Brown Jackson, Senator Lindsey Graham went on Fox News last night to discuss why he questioned her about how “faithful” she was.
While he said he does not thing the judge’s faith will have bearing on her decision-making, he also used the appearance to complain about the discussion of Amy Coney Barrett’s devout Catholicism during her hearings in 2020.
Ms Barrett’s nomination of course proceeded at a remarkable clip given the proximity of that year’s general election and Republicans’ eagerness to get a Trump nominee through in case he lost.
Andrew Naughtie 23 March 2022 11:04
1648030563 Catch up: Josh Hawley’s ‘QAnon-signalling’ questioning
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley introduced his main line of attack against Ketanji Brown Jackson with a series of tweets that presented her sentencing decisions in various cases involving child abuse. He provided little context for the information he related, and despite the criticism he received, he continued the attack yesterday.
As Eric Garcia writes, Ms Brown Jackson parried his questions calmly:
[Mr Hawley] specifically cited her statements where she seemed to give a rationalisation for a lenient sentence.
“I just want to ask you about that because I just have to tell (you) I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it,” he said. Ms Jackson said that she had seen some of the content in her role as a judge.
“It is heinous. It is egregious,” she said. “What a judge has to do is determine how to sentence defendants proportionately consistent with the elements that the statutes include with the requirements that Congress has set forward. Unwarranted disparities is something that the Sentencing Commission has been focused on for a long time in regard to child pornography offences are horrible.”
She laid out how the guidelines that Mr Hawley referenced are being departed from despite the government’s recommendation.
“That the guidelines in this area are not doing the work of differentiating defendants as the government itself indicated in this very case,” she said. “And so that’s what I was talking about, but I want to assure you, senator, that I take these cases very seriously. That these cases include the notion by many defendants that the folks at issue, the defendants themselves are collecting these images on the internet. They’re terrible things that have happened but they’re not involved, say the defendants.” She said that part of her sentencing was about redirecting the defendant’s attention.
“It’s about understanding the harm of this behavior. It’s about all of the other kind of restraints that sex offenders are ordered rightly to live under at the end of the day.”
Read Eric’s full report below.
White House calls Hawley questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘QAnon-signaling smear’ Hawley had previously indicated he would ask Jackson about the subject, which has been debunked multiple times
Andrew Naughtie 23 March 2022 10:16
1648026373 Tucker Carlson: KBJ more like a white liberal than a “rap star off the street"
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, who has called for Ketanji Brown-Jackson’s decades-old LSAT scores to be released as a measure of her judicial acumen, pursued a strange line of argument on his show last night, claiming that what he views as the judge’s elitist radicalism puts her at odds with a more common tendency of American thought.
The segment has not been received well. Watch the clip below.
Andrew Naughtie 23 March 2022 09:06
1648022727 Defending her record, Jackson back for 3rd day of hearings
Ketanji Brown Jackson is returning to the Senate for a third day of hearings as Republicans try to paint her as soft on crime and Democrats herald the historic nature of her nomination to become the first Black woman on the high court.
She was grilled aggressively by Republicans in Tuesday’s marathon hearing and questioned on sentences she has handed down to sex offenders in her nine years as a federal judge, her advocacy on behalf of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, her thoughts on critical race theory and even her religious views.
At one point, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas read from children’s books that he said are taught at her teenage daughter’s school.
Read details in AP’s report
Defending her record, Jackson back for 3rd day of hearings Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is returning to the Senate for a third day of hearings
Shweta Sharma 23 March 2022 08:05
1648019127 Jackson grilled on religious faithfulness by senators
Ketanji Brown Jackson pushed back when GOP Senator Lindsey Graham fired a series of questions about her faith, including how often she attends church.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, how faithful would you say you are in terms of religion?” he asked.
Ms Jackson replied: ”I am reluctant to talk about my faith in this way just because I want to be mindful of the need for the public to have confidence in my ability to separate out my personal views.”
Ms Jackson who spoke strongly of the role of her faith in her life said her faith is important but noted the Constitution prohibits any religious test for public office.
On Monday, Ms Jackson invoked faith and said: “I must also pause to reaffirm my thanks to God, for it is faith that sustains me at this moment.”
Her remarks were similar to her opening remarks after President Joe Biden introduced her last month as his nominee.
Shweta Sharma 23 March 2022 07:05
1648016127 Senator Marsha Blackburn grills Jackson with abortion rant
Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is pro-life, attacked Ketanji Brown Jackson by bringing up abortion and slammed her for her language in a brief she filed as a young attorney.
“Can you explain to me, on a constitutional basis, the court’s decision in Roe -- and where is abortion protected in the constitution?” Ms Blackburn asked.
Ms Jackson said that the American constitution does not mention abortion, but added that: “Abortion is a right that the Supreme Court has recognised is one of the kinds of rights that is unenumerated.”
It came as Supreme Court is set to discuss one of the largest challenges to abortion protections which were guaranteed by Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey to whether uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban.
“Whatever the Supreme Court decides in Dobbs will be the precedent of the Supreme Court. It will be worthy of respect in the sense that it is the precedent and I commit to treating it as I would any other precedent,” Ms Jackson said.
Ms Blackburn also asked Ms Jackson how would she define the word “woman”. Ms Jackson replied: “Not in this context -- I’m not a biologist.”
“In my work as a judge, what I do is I address disputes. If there is a dispute about a definition, people make arguments and I look at the law and I decide,” Ms Jackson said.
Shweta Sharma 23 March 2022 06:15
1648011927 Ketanji Brown Jacksons rejects Republican criticism on past cases
Under attack from Republicans for her past legal representation, Ketanji Brown Jackson defended her legal representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees and rejected allegations of lenience as a judge in child pornography cases.
“I did my duty to hold the defendants accountable,” she said during the 13-hour hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Ms Jackson pledged to be an independent jurist who would not inject her own views into rulings.
She said being a mother herself, she found the cases involving sexual crimes against children particularly harrowing as several Republicans focused their queries on child pornography cases.
“These are the cases that wake you up at night because you’re seeing the worst of humanity,” Ms Jackson said.
Shweta Sharma 23 March 2022 05:05
1648008300 GOP senators air grievances of nominations past on first day of questions for Ketanji Brown Jackson
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee returned on Tuesday ready to air more grievances related to Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings in 2018, three years ago.
Others focused their time instead on mischaracterisations of her record or off-topic rants about critical race theory.
The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg looks back at day 2 of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic confirmation battle:
GOP senators air grievances of nominations past at Senate confirmation Nominee bats back questions about Critical Race Theory from one of her former colleagues on the Harvard Law Review – Texas Senator Ted Cruz
John Bowden 23 March 2022 04:05
1648005357 ABC News spots adorable note from Jackson’s daughter
While her mom was facing her first day of questions from senators on the Judiciary Committee, Ketanji Jackson Brown’s daughter Leila was apparently hard at work offering moral support to her mom.
A hand-drawn sign with balloons bearing the message “you got this!” was spotted on her chair by a reporter from ABC News.
A note reading "YOU GOT THIS!" sits on the seat of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's daughter Leila during Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing. https://t.co/71FRWk3CXr pic.twitter.com/75GycEZGxS
— ABC News (@ABC) March 22, 2022
John Bowden 23 March 2022 03:15
1648003548 What are The Independent’s columnists saying about the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings
There’s no shortage of opinions about Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
Here’s what our Voices columnists are writing.
Michael Arceneaux looked into GOP outrage that resurfaced today over the questioning of the GOP’s most recent Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, on matters of her faith. He argues those questions were legitimate, even if Senators like South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham argued otherwise during today’s hearing.
Graham is willfully obscuring the issue here. Nobody had any problem with Amy Coney Barrett saying she loved her family and her faith. What they were concerned about was Barrett’s membership of a fringe Catholic group called People of Praise, that teaches extremely hardline conservative notions such as the husband’s natural-born right to have authority over his wife. Considering Barrett had written about being stringently anti-abortion before — and considering that she has also written in the past about her belief that a Catholic judge’s religious beliefs should inform their decisions — her religion could be legitimately asked about during her own hearing. Indeed, Barrett became a justice despite all that, and is now poised to rule on cases related to abortion, marriage equality, and LGBT rights.
Lindsey Graham’s made-for-TV tantrum was shameful and pathetic | Michael Arceneaux While the first Black woman in history to be nominated for the Supreme Court answered questions at her hearing, Graham — a white man from South Carolina — was the one who wanted to rant about perceived discrimination and personal grievance
Meanwhile, Harriet Toner writes about how important it was that Ms Jackson spoke candidly about balancing her high-powered judicial career and her family life, a topic that isn’t always discussed enough in Washington and beyond.
Hearing Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson describe the challenge of juggling motherhood and career was a balm for working parents everywhere. It is not often that the battle to get it right, have it all and make it work is so openly acknowledged.
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s honesty about being a mother made me feel seen It’s not often a woman in a high-powered role chooses to talk so candidly about feeling like she didn’t always get it right
Josh Marcus 23 March 2022 02:45
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