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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 1648048875 Ketanji Brown Jackson discusses brother’s law enforcement career
Speaking about the effect her brother’s work as a Baltimore police officer had on her life, Ms Jackson told senators on Wednesday that she worried about his safety while he was on the job.
“As family members, you worry when you don't get the phone call, when you haven't heard for a couple of days, when you hear about things in the news in the community.”
She also said that it showed how public service was a tradition in her family.
“I worked to protect our country. My brother worked on the frontlines, and it was all because public service is important to us,” she told the senators.
John Bowden 23 March 2022 15:21
1648045837 Durbin apologises for GOP ‘conspiracy theories'
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin apologised to Ketanji Brown Jackson on Wednesday after it became clear during day 2 of her confirmation hearings that some Republicans were eager to question her on politically-charged issues that have little (if anything at all) to do with the Supreme Court.
“Your nomination turned out to be a testing ground for conspiracy theories and culture war theories…I’m sorry that we have to go through this,” Mr Durbin told Ms Jackson on Wednesday as day 3 of the hearings began.
John Bowden 23 March 2022 14:30
1648044522 Ossoff asks Ketanji Brown Jackson about ‘kings’ comment
Sen Jon Ossoff asked Ketanji Brown Jackson to explain in detail about a remark she made denying the Trump White House’s request to block his aides from complying with congressional subpoenas.
In one of her most famous rulings, Ms Jackson declared that “presidents are not kings” and denied a 2019 request by the White House to let his aides “ignore or defy congressional compulsory process”.
John Bowden 23 March 2022 14:08
1648043559 Jimmy Kimmel attacks GOP over KBJ tweet
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel blasted the Republican Party after a tweet the organisation posted attempting to link Ketanji Brown Jackson to the concept of critical race theory was widely panned as racist itself.
“I think your dog whistle’s busted, guys. Everyone can hear it now!” he joked.
He then quipped of senators like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who supported the false claims about the 2020 election that led to the attack on Congress: “It’s funny listening to the same people who let the president get away with trying to overthrow the government call anyone soft on crime.”
John Bowden 23 March 2022 13:52
1648039864 Compilation: Ted Cruz’s critical race theory fixation
Critical race theory, or at least the misrepresented version of it that’s become a central Republican talking point in the last year, played a major role at yesterday’s Supreme Court hearing. That was largely thanks to Ted Cruz, who used much of his time to question Ms Brown Jackson about books and texts that she explained had no bearing on her work as a judge.
Here’s a clip reel illustrating how hard he stressed the issue.
Andrew Naughtie 23 March 2022 12:51
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
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