GQP To Bring Racism And Sexism To SCOTUS Confirmation Hearing For Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has already been confirmed three times for the federal judiciary by a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has more trial court experience than any sitting Supreme Court justice and more than any justice since Edward Sanford, who was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1923. Judge Jackson has more than eight years of experience as a judge; that’s more than Justices Thomas, Roberts, Kagan, and Barrett had combined when they were confirmed.

No matter. Republicans will bring their racism and sexism this week against the first African-American woman to be appointed to the court. They will cloak their racism and sexism in terms of “tough on crime” ( a complete joke since the January 6, 2021 violent seditious insurrection and atttempted coup d’etat, for which none of the Coup Plotters at the top have yet to be charged with any crime, including Republican members of Congress who were co-conspirators, and 147 Republicans provided aid and comfort to the violent insurrectionists.)

Republicans will attack Judge Brown for having worked as a public defender during her legal career (apparenlty only Republicans like Donald Trump are entitled to a criminal defense attorney under the Constitution according to their perverted view of the law). Judge Jackson would be the first justice with substantial criminal defense experience since the legal giant Thurgood Marshall retired in 1991. She also served as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where Judge Brown sought to reform unusually harsh mandatory sentences that disproportionately affect poor and minority defendants, you know, that “systemic racism” thing (critical race theory).

The Washington Post editorializes, Some Republicans are preparing to attack Jackson. Why not do something productive? Because they can’t help themselves, it’s who they are.

When Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she will be the first Black woman to sit in the hot seat of a Supreme Court nominee. Comments from some GOP senators suggest that her confirmation hearings will be less contentious than other recent ones, in part because many Republicans do not want to be seen attacking a historic nominee and in part because adding her to the court would not shift its ideological balance.

See: What Republicans really mean when they announce that they’ll “go easy” on Ketanji Brown Jackson: Instead of taking the Supreme Court nominee’s sterling record seriously, the GOP has opted for deflection.

Even so, there is likely to be some grandstanding on the part of some Republican senators, who have indicated that they will try to score points with the far right by assailing Judge Jackson. Which would be a shame, because it would squander what should be a more productive opportunity to explore her judgment and judicial temperament.

[R]eports suggest that some Republicans will seek to attack Judge Jackson’s representation of criminal defendants when she was a public defender and private attorney, alleging she has been easy on sex criminals and raising questions about her work representing Guantánamo Bay prisoners. Smearing Judge Jackson for her past clients would be particularly egregious. She would be the first former public defender to sit on the nation’s highest court, bringing to the bench a background that should be considered an asset.

More: Republicans Falsely Accuse Biden’s Supreme Court Pick Of Going Easy On Sex Offenders: “In a thinly sourced Twitter thread on Thursday, insurrection leader Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) made a series of inflammatory attacks against Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court and currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.” “He claimed, without evidence, that Jackson ‘has a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker.’” ““I’m concerned that this is a record that endangers our children,” Hawley tweeted Thursday, in a thread that contained out-of-context screenshots of Jackson’s past statements and no links to the underlying material he was criticizing.”

This piece of shit seditious insurrectionist has no business sitting in judgment on anyone. He should be charged and tried for seditious conspiracy and insurrection. His home state newspapers last year called on him to resign over his criminal behavior. ‘Poster Boy Of The Radical Right’: Missouri’s Two Biggest Newspapers Call For Sen. Josh Hawley’s Resignation.

More: Senate Republicans Plot Ugly Attacks On Ketanji Brown Jackson For Gitmo Work: Republican lawmakers are revealing a belief that certain people don’t deserve a quality legal defense — undermining a key pillar of the U.S. judicial system. “Perhaps aware of the flawed logic of attacking a public defender for capably representing her assigned clients, some Republican lawmakers are focusing their criticism on Jackson’s decision to continue her Guantánamo work after she left the public defender’s office and became a private attorney.” “She volunteered to continue that representation in private practice, which I think is interesting,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “And frankly, from my point of view, a little concerning.” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas.) told reporters that he was “curious” how Jackson ended up on Guantánamo cases and said “it might make a difference to me whether it was something she sought out.”

What should concern these Senators is that for over twenty years, detainees at Gitmo in Cuba have been held without charges and without a speedy trial in violation of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. Some Republican senators have suggested imprisoning these detainees indefinitely (a life sentence) without charges or trial, knowing that the U.S. government engaged in systematic torture of some prisoners while in custody, in violation of international law and treaties, and this would require the release of these prisoners. 20 Years Later, Guantánamo Remains a Disgraceful Stain on Our Nation. It Needs to End. “Today, 39 men remain indefinitely detained there, and 27 of them have never even been charged with any crime. Fourteen of those 27 have been cleared for transfer or release, some for years. Many of the remaining men are torture survivors; the CIA formerly disappeared some of them at “black sites” before our government sent them to Guantánamo. All of the prisoners have been exposed to the physical and psychological trauma associated with prolonged indefinite detention.”

Vox.com reports, Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing will be a forum for political attacks:

There’s very little reason to doubt Ketanji Brown Jackson will be confirmed and become the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice. She doesn’t need to garner any Republican support in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and her ascension in place of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer won’t shift the ideological makeup of the court.

But this week’s hearings to vet the historic nominee will provide a platform for both Democrats and Republicans to send political messages, and that’s what they’re signaling they will do.

For Democrats, it’s an opportunity to confirm a historic new member to the Supreme Court, help President Joe Biden deliver on a big promise he made to Black voters during the campaign, and make the case for some Republicans to support her, too. For Republicans, it’s a chance to use Jackson’s nomination, and the support she’s gotten from liberal groups like Demand Justice, to question whether Democrats are too far to the left and “soft on crime.”

“I think [Republicans’] focus is going to be trying to accuse Democrats and Biden of being pro-crime, to try to obscure the dark money history of their last three nominees with a lot of smoke about her supposed dark money history,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told Vox. “I think she’s less going to be the target than us, and they’ll be pivoting off her to make points for November.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) signaled as much in a recent floor speech about Jackson’s nomination. “We need to explore why the farthest-left activists in the country desperately wanted Judge Jackson in,” McConnell said. “Liberals are saying that Judge Jackson’s service as a criminal defense lawyer and then on the US Sentencing Commission give her special empathy for convicted criminals.”

See: Mitch McConnell has no basis to oppose Ketanji Brown Jackson. So he made one up. “No politician better exemplifies the triumph of partisanship over duty to country than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). But unlike some of his more brazen colleagues, he often feels obliged to concoct reasons for his ruthless partisanship, unintentionally revealing that power is his only objective.”

When and how to watch Jackson’s hearings

The hearing will air Monday, March 21, through Thursday, March 24, beginning at 11 am on Monday and 9 am on subsequent days. It will be accessible via a livestream on the Senate Judiciary Committee website, as well as via C-SPAN.

The panel begins Monday with statements from each senator on the committee, as well as an introduction from Jackson. Much of the action, however, will be concentrated on Tuesday and Wednesday, when members of the committee will have a chance to ask questions about her experience and judicial philosophy.

Jackson’s historic nomination, briefly explained

Biden first nominated Jackson for the Supreme Court in late February, a few weeks after Breyer announced that he’d retire.

As Vox’s Ian Millhiser has explained, Jackson’s long been a contender for the high court and was previously interviewed for the job by former President Barack Obama as well.

If confirmed, Jackson would bring extensive experience to the position: She became a DC Circuit Court judge last summer, and served as a DC District Court judge for eight years prior to that. Before that, she was a public defender, vice chair of the US Sentencing Commission — a federal body that offers sentencing guidance for the federal judiciary — and an attorney in private practice.

Jackson has ruled on a range of cases, and joined a recent decision that Trump couldn’t block House committees from accessing documents related to the Capitol attack of January 6, 2021. As a member of the Sentencing Commission, Jackson backed reductions to penalties for drug-related offenses, and as a public defender, she represented a detainee in Guantanamo Bay as well as criminal defendants.

Jackson’s nomination marks an important milestone: Biden had previously promised he’d nominate the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court, which has only had five women Justices and two Black Justices in its over-200-year history.

After the hearing, the confirmation is set to move quickly, with Democrats aiming to hold a final Senate vote before April 8.

If confirmed, it’s not yet certain when Jackson would officially join the Court. Breyer has said that he will retire by the end of this Supreme Court term this summer.

What to expect from Republicans

Republicans are poised to ask about Jackson’s record on criminal justice issues including her time on the US Sentencing Commission, past work defending a Guantanamo Bay detainee, and decisions related to child sex offenders. The decision about Trump and the January 6 documents, and comments she’s made declining to reject court packing, are also expected to come up.

Multiple Republicans on the Judiciary Committee including Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Mike Lee (R-UT), have raised particular concerns about Jackson’s work on cases involving child sex offenders. In a recent Twitter thread, Hawley emphasized a series of cases when Jackson imposed shorter sentences for people in child porn cases than the federal sentencing standards. Many of the attacks in Hawley’s thread were unfounded, and Jackson’s approach to sentencing was consistent with how bipartisan experts have approached the issue.

Broadly, Jackson’s hearing gives Republicans an opportunity to hit several of their favorite talking points against Democrats. GOP lawmakers claim, however, that they’ll take a more respectful approach to the hearing than they say Democrats previously took with nominees like Brett Kavanaugh, though that remains to be seen.

Already, they’ve deemed Jackson far left because of the support she’s received from progressive organizations. They’ve emphasized, too, that her appointment adds to a larger Democratic effort to go “soft on crime.”

“President Biden is deliberately working to make the whole federal judiciary softer on crime,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a recent floor speech.

The challenge that Republicans face in this process is that the outcome is pretty much determined.

“President Biden is deliberately working to make the whole federal judiciary softer on crime,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a recent floor speech.

The challenge that Republicans face in this process is that the outcome is pretty much determined.

Since it will only take a simple majority vote, Democrats will be able to confirm her on their own if all 50 members of the caucus stick together and Vice President Kamala Harris serves as a tie-breaking vote. Democrats have also emphasized that Jackson has backing from several bipartisan groups as well as law enforcement organizations including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police.

Last year, a bipartisan group of lawmakers confirmed Jackson to the DC Circuit Court 53-44, with Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Lindsey Graham crossing party lines to support her. Because of how politicized Supreme Court nominations have gotten, though, it’s not yet clear if any of them would back Jackson this time around. Graham, for instance, noted that the “radical Left has won” when Jackson was nominated.

Their votes aren’t needed as things stand, though, and short of any major surprises concerning Jackson, the question is whether either side’s message sticks.

“My goal is to make this a political wash instead of a political win for Democrats,” says Mike Davis, the head of a right-leaning group called The Article III Project, who’s also had informal talks with Republican committee staff.

So the white Christian nationlists want to make this about their racism and sexism, and their radical extremist fascism. Fuck them.