This story was originally published by Georgia Recorder):

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GOP senators attack and interrupt in final day of questioning U.S. Supreme Court nominee

['Ariana Figueroa', 'More From Author', '- March']

Date: 2022-03-24 00:00:00

WASHINGTON — In the third day of hearings Wednesday on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, several Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee interrogated her about sentences she handed down for child pornography offenses, disagreeing vehemently with her judicial decisions. Republicans grilled her with questions she had already answered about seven cases — out of hundreds she handled as a federal district court judge — that dealt with child pornography, in an attempt to paint her as soft on offenders convicted of heinous charges. Jackson in response to Sens. Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley defended her record — despite numerous interruptions from the senators — and attempted to explain the complexity of federal sentencing, as she had on Tuesday. She objected to Hawley and other Republicans’ focus on sentencing in such a small number of cases, repeating throughout the day that “no one case can stand in for a judge’s entire record.” Democrats on the 22-member committee stressed her qualifications and her high ratings from law enforcement groups like the Fraternal Order of Police. Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, invited Jackson to talk about her brother, who is a law enforcement officer, as well as her two uncles who served in law enforcement. “We looked up to them, and we understood through their service what it meant to give back to your community,” Jackson said of her uncles. New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker used his time not to question Jackson, but to defend her from the attacks launched by Republicans. Booker called the bombardment “a new low” that “set a dangerous precedent.” Jackson is “a mainstream judge,” he said. Most federal judges sentence child pornography offenders to less than federal guidelines call for, he said. Jackson, if confirmed, would be the first Black woman and first former public defender to serve on the Supreme Court. She was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Florida and would be the first Floridian to sit on the high court. She graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High School before going on to Harvard College and Harvard Law School. It is not yet clear if any Republicans in the evenly divided Senate will back her nomination. If there’s a tie 50-50 floor vote on the confirmation, it would be broken by Vice President Kamala Harris. Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said at the end of the hearing Wednesday that the nomination will be taken up by the panel on Monday. But the vote likely will not come until a week later, on April 4. ‘You’ve had a lot of poison thrown at you’

Ossoff opened his remarks with an acknowledgement of his fellow Georgia Democrat, Raphael Warnock, who is not a member of the Judiciary Committee but joined Wednesday’s hearing as a spectator.

Ossoff asked Jackson about her upbringing and her family’s values. Jackson confirmed that her brother, Ketajh Brown, was a police officer in Baltimore after he served in the U.S. Army. Two of Jackson’s uncles were also police officers and her parents, an attorney and an educator, were also involved in public service.

Ossoff also questioned Jackson about a line in an opinion she wrote that “presidents are not kings.” The 2019 opinion struck down former President Donald Trump’s claim that former White House Counsel Donald McGahn could not be compelled to testify in front of Congress.

Jackson said the founders of the United States broke the power of a monarch into three branches and that each branch — legislative, executive and judicial — was constrained in its power. Throughout the hearings, Jackson has declined to weigh in on questions she considered matters of policy better suited to the legislative or executive branches.

Ossoff said emerging technologies would complicate long-standing constitutional protections, including against unreasonable search and seizure.

“I want to urge you, should you be confirmed, to remain vigilant about how the emergence of new technologies — the way that they become ubiquitous in our lives, the way that virtual spaces are increasingly akin to physical spaces — will require the court to consider very complex questions and to seek technical advice,” he said.

He also said the court should be transparent about the “origin and funding source” of groups providing technical expertise.

Speaking again in the evening, Ossoff commended Jackson’s poise throughout nearly 23 hours of questions over two days.

“You’ve had a lot of poison thrown at you,” he said. “And you’ve responded with substance and truth, and it’s shone through.”

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