Senate confirmation hearings begin for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson

The hearings are set to span four days with senators convening for two days of questioning on Tuesday and Wednesday before hearing from outside witnesses and the American Bar Association on Thursday.

Biden nominated Jackson to the high court in February, fulfilling a campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, while praising her “extraordinary qualifications.”

“For too long, our government, our courts haven’t looked like America. I believe it’s time that we have a court [that] reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications and that we inspire all young people to believe that they can one day serve their country at the highest level,” he said.

If confirmed, Jackson would be the sixth woman appointed to the bench and the first Supreme Court Justice to have served as a public defender.

Last year, Jackson was confirmed with bipartisan support to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but is expected to face more Republican opposition for a seat on the high court.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Jackson’s Supreme Court appointment is “a different game” than when she voted to confirm Jackson on the appellate court.

“The difference is, you have nine people who sit on the highest court in the land, who are there for life, and it requires a level of review and scrutiny taht is in line with the position,” said Murkowski, according to NPR.

Jackson, perhaps seeking to get ahead of potential GOP criticism, noted that while she has supportive parents and an uncle in law enforcement, she also has an uncle who has had some legal trouble.

“I have one uncle who got caught up in the drug trade and received a life sentence — that is true,” she said following her nomination.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., accused Jackson of exhibiting a “pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes,” citing seven cases she made as a trial judge and a review she published as a law student.

“Every parent in America cares about child porn offenders. I do,” Hawley said. “I think everybody watching these hearings is going to want to hear these questions asked.”

Sen. Marsh Blackburn, R-Tenn., told CNN that she plans to bring up the issue during the hearings this week. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., told Fox News Sunday that he found some elements of Jackson’s record “troubling” and hoped she would be “forthcoming and transparent.”

“Supreme Court justices get lifetime tenure and before that happens, there needs to be a vigorous, rigorous vetting of their records, and there are things in Judge Jackson’s record that are troubling,” he said.

The White House said that Jackson’s sentences in five of the seven cases that Hawley referenced were the same or greater than what the U.S. probation office recommended. White House spokesman Andrew Bates described Hawley’s accusation as “toxic and weakly-presented misinformation that relies on taking cherry-picked elements of her record out of context — and it buckles under the lightest scrutiny.”