Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, issued a robust response Tuesday, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, to allegations she has issued lenient sentences to child pornography offenders, arguing her sentences were appropriate within the scope of her judicial authority.
Asked by the committee’s chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, what was going through her mind when she heard the allegations, Jackson replied, “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.”
HAWLEY NOT ‘TRYING TO PLAY GOTCHA’ OVER JACKSON’S PAST TREATMENT OF SEX OFFENDERS
Jackson said such cases are among the most difficult a judge will consider, and the law requires judges to issue sentences within guidelines rather than the maximum sentence in each and every case. But Jackson said the impact on victims weighs heavily in her consideration of sentences.
“In every case, when I am dealing with something like this, it is important to me to make sure that the children’s perspective, the children’s voices, are represented in my sentences,” Jackson said.
In emotional remarks, Jackson cited some of the victims’ statements that she said had an impact on her.
“I tell them about the adults who are former child sex abuse victims who tell me they will never have a normal adult relationship because of this abuse,” citing the story of one victim who Jackson said became agoraphobic after abuse out of fear she would see someone who saw her on the internet.
In a series of tweets last week, Sen. Josh Hawley alleged that 10 of Jackson’s sentences as a judge in these cases fell “below the government’s recommendations.”
Hawley repeated those allegations in Monday’s hearing, saying he raised the issue prior to the hearing because he wanted answers rather than “playing gotcha.” White House officials said Hawley cherry-picked his claims.
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Durbin cited articles from fact-checkers indicating that the claims were taken out of context, including an article by Andrew McCarthy, a senior fellow at National Review Institute, who wrote that while he would oppose Jackson for other reasons, Hawley’s claim that the judge is soft on child pornography offenders is “meritless to the point of demagoguery.”
