March 24 (UPI) — After two days of sometimes tense questioning by Republicans and Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will have her confirmation hearings close Thursday with testimony from legal scholars, witnesses and experts, including the American Bar Association.
Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the first Black woman to be nominated for the Supreme Court, will be the subject for two Democratic-led expert panels and one chosen by Republicans.
The final hearing was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. EDT.
Jackson, 51, concluded her second and final day of questioning on Wednesday. Over two days, she was pressed on issues including abortion, religion, terrorist detainees, crime, child sex abuse, politics and the makeup of the high court itself.
The tone often became contentious under questioning from GOP senators like Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who made clear at this week’s hearings that he preferred federal judge J. Michelle Childs, from his home state, to be President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee.
Graham and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were among Republicans who often and repeatedly interrupted Jackson’s testimony during questioning on Tuesday and Wednesday. At one point, Graham got up and walked out.
On Thursday, the first panel to give testimony about Jackson’s nomination will include Ann Claire Williams, D. Jean Veta and Joseph Drayton of the American Bar Association.
Last week, the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary completed an evaluation of Jackson and unanimously gave her its highest rating.
“The Standing Committee confines its evaluation to the qualities of integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament,” the committee wrote in a letter to the Senate last week. “The Standing Committee is of the unanimous opinion that Judge Jackson is ‘Well Qualified’ to serve on the United States Supreme Court.”
Another panel will include Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, University of Virginia School of Law Dean Risa Goluboff and Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The Republican-picked panel will include Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Jackson’s childhood friend and attorney Richard Rosenthal, Capt. Frederick Thomas, national president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, questions Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Tuesday during the second day of confirmation hearings by the Senate judiciary committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI
The GOP experts will also include Jennifer Mascott, assistant law professor at George Mason University; Eleanor McCullen, the plaintiff in a case against a Massachusetts law on abortion clinic buffer zones; FirstLiberty Institute expert Keisha Russell and Alessandra Serano of the anti-trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad.
While Jackson can win Senate confirmation without any Republican votes, Democrats have hoped to win some GOP support for Biden’s first Supreme Court nominee.
Graham, one of three Republicans who voted to confirm Jackson last year for the D.C. appellate court, has already signaled that he won’t vote for her again.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, frequent swing vote Republicans who also voted to confirm Jackson last year, have not yet indicated which way they are leaning.
On the first day of questioning Tuesday, Jackson was asked about a range of topics like “packing” the Supreme Court, her track record in sentencing child sex offenders and past defense of terror detainees at the Navy’s prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Jackson defended her record as a federal judge and rejected accusations that she’s soft on crime. Many Republicans on the committee and in Congress have painted Jackson as a radical liberal and too extreme to serve on the high court bench. They also spent a good deal of time during this week’s hearings condemning Democrats for the contentious confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, former President Donald Trump’s second high court nominee in 2018.
Kavanaugh narrowly won confirmation from a Republican-held Senate and opposition mainly stemmed sexual assault accusations against Kavanaugh when he was in college. At the end of Kavanaugh’s hearings, accuser Christine Blasey Ford testified on the final day when the committee heard from scholars, legal experts and other witnesses.
Following Thursday’s hearing, the Senate judiciary committee is expected to vote on Jackson’s nomination on Friday. If approved, her nomination would likely move to the full Senate for a vote next week — and, if confirmed, Jackson would be sworn in a short time later. She wouldn’t begin her tenure on the Supreme Court until after the current term ends in June and Justice Stephen Breyer, who she would succeed, retires forthwith.
