Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton pressed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, on Tuesday about crime statistics and claims that her sentences for child pornography offenses were overly lenient.
Cotton asked Jackson a series of questions about crime statistics, whether the United States needs more law enforcement officers, and whether the average length of sentences for certain crimes was sufficient. Jackson, in her second day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in reply to many of the questions that they were policy matters intended to be set by the other branches of government, not the judiciary.
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Cotton turned to allegations that Jackson’s sentences for child pornography offenses in several cases were too lenient. Jackson said she acted within the realm of her authority as a judge, and judges are obligated to consider multiple factors as a matter of law, not just issue the maximum sentence in every case.
“If I had that discretion, I’d probably throw the book at child pornographers, but maybe that’s just me,” Cotton said.
Jackson said she was unable to speak in generalities about specific cases.
“As a judge, we are asked in the context of a single prosecution regarding a particular person who has committed a horrible crime,” Jackson said.
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Jackson told Cotton it is not her role as a judge to implement policy.
“It’s not that they’re difficult questions — it’s that they’re not questions for me,” she said. “I am not the Congress. I am not making policy around sentencing.”
