Testimony for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has concluded. The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet March 28, likely setting up an April 4 committee vote to advance her nomination as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court to the Senate Floor.
Brown Jackson testified before the committee for two days. The questions were at times contentious, leading Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) to chastise some of his fellow committee members.
“My colleagues promised a fair and respectful hearing,” Durbin told Brown Jackson. “Most, including my Republican colleagues, Senator Grassley, followed that admonition. He always does. But there were a few obvious, glaring exceptions. I’m sorry for that.”
“The jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) said in a loosely veiled dig at some of his colleagues.
Brown Jackson faced hard questions from senators about much of her background, including when she served as a defense attorney for detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
“Look at the frigging Afghan government! It’s made up of former detainees,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said. “I hope they all die in jail if they’re going to go back and kill Americans.”
Senators also addressed Brown Jackson’s time on the bench sentencing child pornography cases.
“Why isn’t it rational to sentence people who have thousands of images on a computer to more time, as opposed to somebody who has one or two pictures in the mail,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked.
But it was a member of the party that nominated her that caused her to cry.
“I look at you, this is why I get emotional. I’m sorry. You’re a person who is so much more than your race and gender,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said. “But for me, I’m sorry, I, I, it’s hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom, not to see my cousins, one of them who had to come here and sit behind you. She had to be, she had to have your back.”
“I see my ancestors and yours. Nobody is going to steal the joy of that woman in the street, or the calls that I’m getting or the texts. Nobody is going to steal that joy. You have earned this spot. You are worthy,” Booker said. “You are a great American.”