Early signs suggest South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is likely to vote “no” for President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, after the Democratic administration did not select his preferred choice, Judge J. Michelle Childs.
While Graham has yet to announce whether he will vote for Biden’s nominee when the Senate convenes to vote on her confirmation next month, the former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman appeared disgruntled after the administration opted to not select Childs, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina whom Graham touted as a “fair-minded, highly gifted jurist.”
“The reason Michelle Childs is not the nominee is because of a concerted effort by the Left to take her down, and that doesn’t sit very well with me,” Graham said last week.
Until the administration’s nomination of Jackson late last month, Graham had repeatedly said a nomination of Childs would gain bipartisan support among Republicans and Democrats, predicting she would receive “probably double-digit Republican support for somebody that would have been in the liberal camp from my state.”
GOP SENATORS MEET SUPREME COURT NOMINEE JACKSON, PREVIEWING ‘NO’ VOTE ARGUMENTS
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has called for bipartisan support over Jackson’s confirmation process, which is slated to commence with hearings on March 21. Durbin told the Hill on Tuesday that he had spoken to Graham and did not know how he may vote.
But despite Durbin’s optimism to win over a handful of conservative votes, a Senate Democratic aide said Tuesday that Graham’s statements are an indication he is planning not to vote for the nominee.
Graham and two other GOP senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, have voted for at least 60% of Biden’s judicial nominees and previously voted for Jackson to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. However, each of them has dismissed suggestions that their past confirmation of Jackson would guarantee their vote this time around.
But Collins met with Jackson on Tuesday and came away from their discussion with high praises, saying, “It’s clear that her credentials and the breadth of her experience are impressive.”
“Obviously, I don’t agree with her on every decision she has rendered,” she added. “But I felt that what I did get from her is that she takes a very thorough, careful approach in applying the law to the facts of the case, and that is what I want to see in a judge.”
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Graham has voted for every Supreme Court justice since he took office in 2003, while Collins has voted “yes” on every high court nominee except for Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
The Washington Examiner contacted Graham’s office but did not receive a response.
