Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is slated to meet with President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson in the buildup to her confirmation process, among her other meetings with top lawmakers.
Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was nominated on Friday by Biden and was lauded by Democrats anticipating her confirmation, while Republicans vowed to thoroughly review her record. She is also expected to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, the panel’s top Republican member, according to the White House.
“Judge Jackson went to work immediately, doing prep on Saturday and Sunday, and she’s looking forward to her first meetings with senators of both parties,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates told the Washington Examiner. The four meetings will be conducted in person.
BIDEN NOMINATES KETANJI BROWN JACKSON TO SUPREME COURT
Democrats are hopeful to confirm Jackson to the highest court by April 8, before a scheduled two-week break, and the odds are likely in their favor if all 50 members are united. Democrats also have Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote.
Jackson’s nomination has also spurred dark money groups on both sides of the aisle to launch ad campaigns for and against her confirmation. Demand Justice, a left-wing group, announced a $1 million ad campaign to call on senators to “urge them to move quickly to confirm” her. Meanwhile, the right-leaning Judicial Crisis Network has spent nearly $2.5 million on ads seeking to attack Democrats and the president’s nominee.
But Biden’s party might not be as hard-pressed to garner GOP support in its efforts to confirm Jackson, as Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Lindsey Graham voted last year to confirm her to the D.C. appeals court.
“I look forward to the opportunity to meet with Judge Jackson to learn more about her qualifications as a jurist, her judicial temperament and philosophy, and discuss issues important to Alaskans,” Murkowski told the Washington Examiner, noting that she has been clear that “previously voting to confirm an individual to a lower court does not signal how I will vote for a Supreme Court justice.”
Additionally, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney also signaled he is “open” to voting for Jackson to the Supreme Court in a statement to CNN.
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“Her nomination and her confirmation would or will be historic. And like anyone nominated by the president of the United States, she deserves a very careful look, a very deep dive,” Romney said. “And I will provide fresh eyes to that evaluation, and hope that I will be able to support her in the final analysis.”
Jackson’s nomination follows the announcement of Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement last month, which he plans to fulfill after the end of the present Supreme Court session this summer.
