McConnell says he’ll vote against confirming Jackson for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday that he will vote against confirming Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying he “cannot and will not” support the groundbreaking nominee for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.

While McConnell’s opposition was not unexpected and Jackson’s confirmation is still on track, his declaration coming only hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up four days of hearings probably will lead many fellow Republicans to follow suit.

Democrats can confirm Jackson, the first Black woman nominated for the nation’s highest court, without any

GOP support in the 50-50 Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris can cast the tiebreaking vote.

McConnell slammed the liberal groups that have supported Jackson, and he criticized her for refusing to take a position on the size of the ninemember court, even though that decision is ultimately up to Congress. Some advocacy groups have pushed for enlarging the court after three of President Donald Trump’s nominees cemented a conservative majority. “Judge Jackson was the court packers’ pick and she testified like it,“McConnell, R-Ky., said in a floor speech.

Over two days of committee questioning this week, Republicans interrogated Jackson about her record as a federal judge, including her sentencing of criminal defendants, as she seeks to become the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court.

Legal experts praised Jackson in the final day of hearings Thursday, with a top lawyers’ group saying its review found she has a “sterling” reputation, “exceptional” competence and is well qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

“Outstanding, excellent, superior, superb,” testified Ann Claire Williams, chair of the American Bar Association committee that makes recommendations on federal judges. “Those are the comments from virtually everyone we interviewed.”

Williams said the group spoke to more than 250 judges and lawyers about Jackson. “The question we kept asking ourselves: How does one human being do so much so extraordinary well?”

Democrats are hoping to win bipartisan votes for President Joe Biden’s historic nominee, but Republicans have portrayed Jackson as soft on crime in her nine years on the federal bench. Jackson, supported by committee Democrats, pushed back on that GOP narrative in more than 22 hours of questioning, explaining the sentencing process in detail and telling them: “nothing could be further from the truth.”

The four-hour hearing Thursday featured not only legal experts but government officials and civil rights groups who supported Jackson and conservative advocates who opposed her.

Alabama Attorney General Steven Marshall, a witness invited by the minority, echoed the Republicans’ concerns. Marshall said Jackson’s supporters cite her as a voice for the vulnerable, but “we should be interested in exploring whether her zeal is equally fervent for another class of our most vulnerable — victims of violent crime.”

Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, the committee chairman, noted that some Republican senators argued that Jackson was out of the mainstream when it comes to sentencing. Durbin asked the ABA whether such a concern would have surfaced in their interviews with the judges and lawyers who worked with her.

“It never came up in any of these interviews,” Williams said.

Joseph Drayton, another member of the ABA committee, said Jackson’s reputation is “stellar.”

Democrats tried to portray Marshall himself as out of the mainstream, asking about his efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., asked Marshall whether Biden was the “duly elected” president. Marshall, who had supported a lawsuit to overturn Donald Trump’s defeat, would only say that Biden was president. The Supreme Court dismissed that suit.