Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday moved one step closer to becoming the first ever Black woman on the Supreme Court, even though the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked on her nomination.
The panel split 11-11 on Jackson’s nomination, with all Democrats in support and all Republicans against. The deadlock forced Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to invoke special procedures to advance Jackson’s nomination.
The top Democrat filed what’s called a “motion to discharge” the committee from Jackson’s nomination. That discharge vote only requires a simple majority, and given the Senate’s 50-50 split with Democrats in control, they will be able to push Jackson’s nomination forward. After that vote on Monday evening, Jackson remains on track for a final confirmation vote before the full Senate, which will likely take place later this week.
Still, the tied vote represents how partisan the Supreme Court confirmation process has become in recent years. The committee was widely anticipated to deadlock after several Republicans on the panel announced their opposition to Jackson. Those GOP members, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Josh Hawley of Missouri, aggressively questioned Jackson during her confirmation hearings last month, appearing likely to vote against her.
Yet GOP opposition will not tank Jackson’s nomination. The 51-year-old judge is expected to be confirmed with full Democratic support and the backing of at least one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who revealed last week that she plans to vote for Jackson. Senate Democrats and the White House have been vying to peel off some GOP votes for a bipartisan confirmation.
Last year, Collins supported Jackson’s confirmation to her current seat on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, as did two other Republicans: Graham and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
This time around, Graham opposed Jackson’s nomination because of what he described as her record of “judicial activism” and a “lack of a steady judicial philosophy.” Murkowski has not yet announced how she will vote, but Monday’s discharge vote could preview how she intends to.
Most Republicans have already said they will vote against Jackson. Though another possible swing vote for Jackson is Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who has not yet announced which way he will go.
Monday’s committee vote comes after Jackson met individually with senators for weeks and faced roughly 22 hours of questioning during her confirmation hearings, which at times grew contentious. Republicans grilled Jackson on her sentencing record and her judicial philosophy, while Democrats touted her extensive legal experience, her endorsements from both sides of the political aisle, and her history-making moment as the first Black woman nominated for the nation’s highest court.
Jackson expressed gratitude for the nomination and pledged that if confirmed, she will “support and defend the Constitution and this grand experiment of American democracy that has endured over these past 246 years.”
“I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts. And I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me without fear or favor consistent with my judicial oath,” Jackson said in her opening statement.
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