Four times Jackson was rattled by GOP pressure during Supreme Court hearing

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, asked Jackson on Tuesday night about a number of culture war issues, including efforts to permit or ban transgender student-athletes to compete on teams corresponding to their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

In the exchange, Blackburn asked Jackson, in her second day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, to define the word “woman.”

Jackson responded that she could not.

“You can’t?” Blackburn asked.

“Not in this context. I’m not a biologist,” Jackson said, adding, “In my work as a judge, what I do is address disputes. If there is a dispute about a definition, people make arguments, and I look at the law, and I decide.”

Cruz and critical race theory

Using visual cues, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz asked Jackson if she is a supporter of critical race theory, a term that has sparked a culture war despite no consensus on its definition.

“I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist, or as though they are not valued, or as though they are less than — that they are victims, they are oppressors,” Jackson said, before pausing and appearing visibly frustrated at Cruz’s question. “I don’t believe in any of that.”

Cruz said he thought Jackson’s response was “a curious statement” and referenced a speech she gave at the University of Chicago in April 2015 in which she said legal work on sentencing is interesting because it “melds together various types of law” and critical race theory.

“You described in a speech to a law school what you were doing as critical race theory,” he said. “So I guess I would ask: What did you mean by that when you gave that speech?”

Jackson said the quote he referenced “was about sentencing policy” and not her own sentencing decision when she was vice chairwoman of the Sentencing Commission.

The Texas senator interrupted her by pointing out her former role on the commission and asked again, “What did you mean by what you were doing with critical race theory?”

Jackson argued that the quote Cruz highlighted did not showcase the “laundry list” of academic discipline that she argued was relevant to the sentencing policy.

Some describe critical race theory as any curricula that diminishes the good in U.S. history by portraying the nation as fundamentally flawed due to original sins including racism and slavery. Others say it is an academic theory limited in scope to graduate-level courses and argue claims that the theory is taught in grade schools are unfounded.

Child pornography sentences

After Republican lawmakers extensively grilled Jackson over cases in which convicted child pornographers were given sentences lower than Sentencing Commission recommendations, Jackson said her “regret” was the GOP’s extensive focus on a “small subset” of her sentences.

Jackson was replying to Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley’s line of questioning asking if she regrets her decision in the 2013 case United States v. Hawkins in which she sentenced an 18-year-old who had been in possession of about two dozen images and videos of sexual abuse of children to three months in prison when the prosecution recommended at least two years.

“What I regret is that in a hearing about my qualifications to be a justice on the Supreme Court, we have spent a lot of time focusing on this small subset of my sentences,” Jackson said.

Last week, Hawley was the first to raise concerns over Jackson’s record, citing 10 cases in which she sentenced child pornography offenders to less time than what the Sentencing Commission recommended, and many Republicans have since latched onto his line of criticism.

But White House officials, along with the committee’s Democratic chairman, Dick Durbin, have vehemently disputed Hawley’s inquiry, saying, “It was discredited from the start. Every major news organization that has taken a look at his charges have said there’s no basis for it.”

Cruz presses subject of sentencing

Cruz also asked Jackson about a series of sentences she issued as a judge to child pornography offenders, describing her sentences as lenient with regard to despicable crimes.

“Senator, as I said to [South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham], the court is taking into account a number of circumstances. The commission has done a report about the operation of the guidelines, which enhancements actually reflect different levels of culpability,” Jackson said before being cut off by another line of questioning from Cruz.

Jackson eventually told Cruz, “Senator, I have said what I am going to say about these cases.”

Cruz accused Jackson of evading his questions while Durbin said his allotted 20 minutes had expired. The Texas senator continued to press Jackson to answer his questions, speaking over her several times.

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“Why are you not allowing her to answer the question?” Cruz asked Durbin several times, to which the chairman responded, “You wouldn’t allow her to answer anyways.”

Durbin used his gavel to signal that Cruz was over his time, to which Cruz replied, “You can bang it as loud as you want.”