South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday affirmed what many speculated would be his decision to vote “no” on confirming Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, citing her sentencing record for child pornography offenders.
“After a thorough review of Judge Jackson’s record and information gained at the hearing from an evasive witness, I now know why Judge Jackson was the favorite of the radical Left,” Graham said in a Senate floor speech. “I oppose and will vote against the nomination of Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court.”
Graham’s comments on the Senate floor echoed concerns first raised by fellow Republican Sen. Josh Hawley in the days leading up to her hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Many GOP senators raised issues with Jackson’s sentencing record, despite White House officials criticizing their complaints as “cherry-picked” elements about her judicial record.
SUSAN COLLINS TO GIVE SUPREME COURT NOMINEE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON FIRST GOP VOTE
I oppose and will vote against the nomination of Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 31, 2022
On Thursday, Graham claimed Jackson’s record of sentencing for child pornography possession is “57% less than the national average” and that her record of sentencing for distribution is “40% less than the national average.”
“Under the sentencing guidelines, a judge, if they choose, can enhance the sentence based on the fact that the perpetrator used the internet,” Graham said. “Now why do we want that as the sentencing enhancement? We want to deter the use of the internet when it comes to child pornography because there’s already 85 million images and videos of children being abused, and that’s the venue of choice.”
During Jackson’s committee hearings, she was questioned on around 10 cases in which her sentence issued to a child sex offender was below the average recommendation by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Hawley specifically grilled Jackson on a 2013 case, United States v. Hawkins, involving an 18-year-old defendant whom she sentenced to three months in federal prison for possession of child pornography despite the government requesting 24 months in prison.
In response, Jackson said the evidence was “heinous” but that judges are obligated to “determine how to sentence defendants proportionately, consistent with the elements that the statutes include with the requirements that Congress has set forward,” adding that the commission has long focused on “unwarranted sentencing disparities.”
Graham vowed on Thursday to work with Hawley to “correct these practices.” Previously, committee Chairman Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, provided examples of Republican-appointed judges who did not fall in line with the sentencing guidelines, adding that “Congress doesn’t have clean hands in this conversation.”
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“I think she’s making a terrible mistake by not enhancing sentences based on the volume, because every click of a computer is destroying a life,” Graham said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will reconvene on April 4 to vote to move Jackson’s nomination toward a full vote in the Senate, where she is expected to be confirmed on or before April 11, when lawmakers leave for their spring break.
