U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson arrives for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 22, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson in a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday forcefully defended her judicial record against Republican accusations that she was too lenient in sentencing child-pornography offenders.
“As a mother and a judge who has had to deal with these cases, I was thinking that nothing could be further from the truth,” Jackson said when asked about the attacks from some GOP lawmakers.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who asked the question at the start of the second day of Jackson’s confirmation hearings, directly referenced claims made by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., another member of the judiciary panel.
Hawley tweeted last week that Jackson showed “a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker.”
But fact checks from numerous media outlets called that claim misleading. Durbin and other Democrats have quoted a conservative columnist who called Hawley’s argument “meritless to the point of demagoguery.”
Jackson’s defense of her record came at the start of two days of cross-examination by senators as part of her confirmation hearings. Jackson, who if confirmed will become the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court, was expected to face intense scrutiny from Republicans and praise from Democrats.
Jackson in her first appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday offered a summary defense of her career from the bench. She said she looks at her cases “from a neutral posture” and applies the law “without fear or favor.”
Lawmakers will be able to question Jackson under oath in a public forum Tuesday for the first time since President Joe Biden nominated her to the Supreme Court. The federal judge previously met privately with senators on Capitol Hill.
Jackson is a 51-year-old judge who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The first nominee of Biden, Jackson would succeed the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, replacing one liberal justice with another.
The high court’s conservatives currently enjoy a 6-3 majority over the liberals.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
Read More: Supreme Court pick Ketanji Brown Jackson Senate confirmation hearings