President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, meets with three lawmakers on Tuesday as top Republicans have vowed to show “respect” during her Senate Judiciary Committee hearings despite disagreements.
Jackson first met with West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito Tuesday morning, who had previously promised to “consider her nomination according to her experience and ability to make unbiased decisions based on the text and original meaning of our Constitution” carefully.
Capito, after meeting with Jackson on Tuesday, didn’t tip her hand.
“As I’ve said before, I continue to take my constitutional duty to evaluate Supreme Court nominees seriously, and I will keep an open mind as I carefully consider her nomination,” Capito said in a statement.
Later on Tuesday, Jackson met with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who voted for her last year to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. While Graham appears poised to vote “no” over Jackson’s nomination to the highest court, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said Monday he hasn’t given up on gaining Graham’s support.
Biden’s nominee also plans to meet with Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland on Tuesday.
CONSERVATIVE JUDICIAL ACTIVIST SAYS THERE’S A LOT TO CRITICIZE IN JACKSON RECORD
While Republicans are individually united in their pledge to review Jackson’s judicial record carefully before making a firm decision on whether to vote for her confirmation, some lawmakers including Blunt and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney are deliberating on whether they would want to oppose Jackson’s confirmation, given the Biden administration’s historic pledge to nominate the first black woman to the high court.
“It’s historic for an African American woman to be nominated,” Romney told Politico earlier this month. “My heart would like to be able to vote for her confirmation. But I will not do so unless I’m satisfied she is in the mainstream of judicial thought and consistent with what I think the course of our judicial philosophy will be.”
Conservative lawmakers have echoed a popular refrain by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to analyze her “judicial philosophy” as it pertains to her interpretation of the Constitution, though even Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been doubtful that “there’s going to be a lot of coordination” among his fellow party members.
“No matter what,” said Cornyn, who voted “no” on Jackson when she was considered for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, “Judge Jackson will be given the dignity and respect she deserves. The American people will see a starkly different process from the treatment of Justice Kavanaugh and other judicial nominees during the previous administration.”
Jackson, who was tapped by the Biden administration last month to succeed retiring Justice Stephen Breyer when he steps down from the bench later this year, will begin her hearings before the committee on March 21, with meetings set to conclude on March 24.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee outlined its plans for the hearings next week, noting that introduction statements from committee members and individuals representing Jackson will precede rounds of questioning on March 22, when each of its 22 members will have 30 minutes to ask the judge questions.
Hearings will resume on March 23 for a second round of questioning, followed by a closed session that day to “discuss any matters relating to Judge Jackson’s FBI background investigation,” a standard practice for Supreme Court nominees.
