‘Preparing for this moment her entire life.’ Jackson’s confirmation hearings conclude
As the marathon hearings on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson drew to a close Thursday, an influential Black female lawmaker addressed senators to remind them of Jackson’s credentials on top of her potential to make history as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.
“Her life experience, education and reverence for the rule of law clearly demonstrate that she has been preparing for this moment her entire life,” Rep. Joyce Beatty, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Jackson, a 1988 Miami Palmetto High School graduate, earned two degrees from Harvard University, clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, helped lead the U.S. Sentencing Commission and spent nine years on the federal bench before her nomination came before the committee.
“Sadly but not surprisingly Judge Jackson has been the subject of unfair attacks. These bad faith efforts exist despite a résumé that arguably surpasses those of previous nominees,” Beatty said.
Despite a history of bipartisan support, Jackson’s confirmation hearings proved to be a sometimes grueling affair as the judge repeatedly faced questions about her sentencing decisions in seven child pornography cases as Republican senators sought to portray her as soft on crime.
The hearings may have bruised Jackson’s public image, but they’re unlikely to derail her path to the court as long as President Joe Biden’s party remains united around his historic nominee.
After taking senators’ questions the last two days, Jackson was not present in the room as other witnesses testified on her nomination.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin formally considering Jackson’s nomination on Monday afternoon and is expected to act on it by April 4.
The full Senate will vote on Jackson’s nomination after the committee issues its recommendation. Democratic leaders are aiming to confirm the judge before senators’ scheduled break begins on April 11.
American Bar Association experts praise Jackson
Majority Democrats took a final shot at rebutting the Republican refrain from the previous three days that Jackson is soft on crime as members of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rated Jackson as “well qualified” for the Supreme Court, outlined their review of the judge’s work.
The ABA representatives cited interviews with prosecutors who had argued cases before Jackson to reject claims of bias in favor of criminal defendants.
“When asked about the allegation that Judge Jackson is soft on crime, one high-ranking attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office responded, ‘I vehemently disagree.’ Another prosecutor who has appeared multiple times before Judge Jackson responded by saying such an accusation ‘absolutely was not borne out based on my experience with her,’ ” testified D. Jean Veta, a member of the standing committee and senior counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, a regulatory law firm in Washington, D.C.
“Instead prosecutors like the other lawyers we interviewed praised Judge Jackson as a judge who considers all arguments before coming to a decision.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, the Judiciary chair, asked the ABA representatives to respond specifically to Republican senators’ criticism of Jackson’s sentencing decisions in child pornography. Durbin referenced Sen. Josh Hawley’s allegation that Jackson’s decisions had endangered children.
Joseph Drayton, a New York-based trial lawyer who serves on the standing committee, said the committee found no evidence of that claim. Drayton said he had interviewed prosecutors who had argued such cases before Jackson.
“None of them felt that she demonstrated bias in any way,” Drayton told Durbin.
Republicans persist in criticism on crime
But the ABA testimony is unlikely to persuade Republicans to drop the criticism about Jackson’s handling of criminal cases in the lead-up to the confirmation vote. Republican witnesses repeated the attack Thursday during their testimony.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, alleged that Jackson’s appointment “may well be intended by this administration to initiate a transformation of our criminal justice system.”
Marshall pointed to a Harvard Law Review article on sex offender registries Jackson wrote as a law school student, which GOP lawmakers repeatedly cited this week, and said it gives “no assurance that she would give voice to the voiceless victims of sex crimes.”
Marshall leads the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a dark-money organization which came under scrutiny following last year’s Jan. 6 attack. The group, which is affiliated with Republican attorneys general, made robocalls urging people to march on the Capitol before a mob stormed the Capitol in a failed effort to prevent certification of Biden’s electoral win.
Asked about this point by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, Marshall said his organization “has denounced lawlessness.”
The issue of Jackson’s sex offense sentencing was first raised by Hawley, the Missouri Republican who led the efforts in the Senate to object to Biden’s electoral victory.
The White House has accused Hawley and others of trying to appeal to conspiracy theorists with the attack, a claim Hawley has disputed.
“This is a president that is presiding over a historic crime wave, so if they want to dismiss concerns about their children’s safety and they want to dismiss concerns about crime as a conspiracy theory, I’ll take that argument.”
Miami Palmetto classmate testifies at hearing
In addition to the continued assessment of Jackson’s sentencing decisions, Thursday’s hearing also featured testimony from one of her former classmates in Miami.
“From the very first day I met Ketanji, I knew she was special,” said Richard B. Rosenthal, who met her when she was 14 and he was 12 in school in Miami.
Rosenthal, now an appellate lawyer, said that Jackson has been regarded by him and others as one of the “kindest, warmest, most down-to-earth and humble” people.
In 1998, Rosenthal said, both he and Jackson served as law clerks for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He recalls feeling especially proud: “I had actually accomplished something that Ketanji had accomplished,” he said.
Rosenthal detailed when their high school — which he described as large, often not well funded and not one that typically sends students to Harvard — announced that Jackson had been accepted, she serendipitously was walking into the room. The entire classroom leapt to their feet to congratulate her, he said.
And no one was jealous or spiteful, he said, for a simple reason: “Because she was Ketanji.”
The Kansas City Star’s Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 11:56 AM with the headline "‘Preparing for this moment her entire life.’ Jackson’s confirmation hearings conclude."
