Judge Jackson begins making her case for Supreme Court
WASHINGTON >> The confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will begin March 21, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday, as the Supreme Court nominee began meetings with senators in a quest for bipartisan support from the polarized Senate.
The chair, Sen. Dick Durbin, DIll., revealed the timetable and joined Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, in urging Republicans to consider voting for Jackson even though nearly all of them voted against her confirmation last year for an appeals court post.
“She deserves support from the other side of the aisle,” said Schumer, who repeatedly called the nominee “amazing” following a private session with her just off the Senate floor. “I am hopeful that a good number of Republicans will vote for her, given who she is.”
Jackson, 51, has been confirmed to the Senate three times before. The last time was in June, when the 53to-44 vote confirming her to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit included three Republicans in support.
Yet the votes of even those Republicans are not assured this time around. Once routine, strong bipartisan support for a Supreme Court nominee has become a thing of the past. Changing that dynamic will require Jackson, the first Black woman ever nominated to the court, and Democrats to mount a persuasive case that she is highly qualified and merits a court seat even if Republicans see her as too liberal.
Believing that the judge is her own best advocate, Durbin said she would be available to all members of the Judiciary Committee before the coming hearing as well as other lawmakers who want one-on-one meetings. One Republican whom Democrats see as a potential vote for Jackson is Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted to confirm her last June. Collins is scheduled to meet with the judge next week.
“It is absolutely essential that I sit down and interview her,” Collins said Wednesday.
Durbin said he had reached out to a handful of other Republican senators who he thought also might vote for Jackson.