The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday approved the Senate nomination of Supreme Court candidate Katanji Brown Jackson, a step closer to becoming the first woman of color and first former ombudsman on the nation’s highest court.
“This is the fourth time the committee has voted for Judge Jackson in a capacity that reflects his outstanding legal career,” said Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chairman of the committee. “This is the first time the committee has had the opportunity to promote a black woman to the Supreme Court.”
“This is a historic moment for the Committee and for America,” he added.
The jury advanced Jackson’s nomination by 11-11 votes, not all Republican votes. The members of this GOP are Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Lindsay Graham (SC), John Cornyn (Texas), Mike Lee (Utah), Ted Cruz (Texas), Ben Sass (Neb.), Josh Heale (Mo.), Tom Cotton (Ark), John F. Kennedy (LA), Tom Tilly (NC) and Marsha Blackburn (Ten.).
A fair vote would mean Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DNY) would have to force his committee submission through a procedural step known as a dismissal petition. Sumer broke that vow on Monday night; Jackson’s dismissal motion was passed 53-47.
“This step in the procedure should be completely unnecessary,” Sumer said before the Senate vote. “There is no doubt that Judge Jackson deserves a strong bipartisan vote on the committee. But unfortunately, despite the judge’s qualifications, none of the Republicans on the commission voted in favor of his commission announcement.
He added, “The end result will remain the same: Judge Jackson finally has enough support for bipartisan confirmation and the Senate will continue to work until this appointment is completed.”
Three Republicans, including Democrats, supported Jackson’s removal from the nomination committee: Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Mitt Romney (Utah). They were the only GOP senators who said they would vote in favor of Jackson.
The Senate still has some procedural steps to clean up this week, but Jackson is on track for final confirmation on Thursday.
During the committee hearing Monday, Republicans repeated the same attacks of bad faith they made last month at a confirmation hearing in Jackson.
They falsely accused him of not being tough on child sex offenders as a federal judge, even though they knew his record was prominently displayed. Cotton falsely claims that Jackson is passionate about helping terrorists. Cruz accused Democrats of mistreating Supreme Court Justice Brett Cavanaugh as he listened to his affidavit and asked him for high school yearbooks, while “no Republican senator is asking for it. [Jackson] About his high school year book. He did not mention that Cavanaugh, unlike Jackson, was convincingly charged with sexual harassment in high school.
Some Republicans also accused Democrats of supporting Jackson in hypocrisy, but in the early 2000s a conservative black woman opposed court candidate Jenny Roger Brown even though they knew she did it. Democrats opposed him for opposing ideology Social security networks, environmental and reproductive rights.
The fact is that many of the committee’s senators – Cruz, Hale and Cotton – were presidential candidates in 2024 and used the Judiciary Committee hearings as a platform for a false attack on Biden’s candidates who called him “light crime.” They do this throughout the year and their criticisms of Jackson are only getting more attention because his nomination is of higher standard.
It was only in June that Jackson confirmed his current seat in the U.S. District of Columbia Court of Appeals, a court that is considered immediately after the Supreme Court. Three Republicans voted for him to approve the seat: Collins, Murkovsky and Graham.
Graham said he voted “no” this time, despite voting for Jackson for his current seat, his former seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States Penitentiary Commission.
Why did you vote against Jackson?
According to reports, he has a sour grape case because Biden did not choose the Supreme Court candidate he wanted.
This story has been updated to reflect the Senate vote on Jackson’s dismissal from the judicial commission.
Source: Huffpost
