Brett Kavanaugh by Democrats in 2018. The last-minute charge by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford
that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers — for which the accuser could not cite a location or produce a single corroborating witness — and the resulting mean-spirited Judiciary Committee hearings and narrow (52-48) confirmation vote left a bad taste with GOP lawmakers. Put another way, most senators were inclined pre- Kavanaugh to reflect along the lines of Senate candidate Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and confirm nominees of Democratic presidents unless there was something par- ticularly disturbing in their resumes or writings. During his 2009 campaign, Toomey said he sup-
ported President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court in ’09 because “while I knew I would likely disagree with many of Justice Soto- mayor’s decisions, she was nonetheless worthy of sup- port because objective qualifications should matter more than ideology in the judicial confirmation process.” But in 2010, candidate Toomey opposed Obama’s nomination of then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court because he found her record “lacks the clear evidence of impartiality that Justice Sotomayor’s had” and specifically noted “her treatment of military recruiters [on campus] raises doubts about whether her decisions are guided more by policy preferences than respect for the law.” As Republican senators begin taking up Jackson’s nomination, it is likely there will be fewer who look at it in the nuanced and intellectual way that Toomey con- sidered Obama’s two nominees. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of three Republicans to support confirmation of Jackson to the Court of Appeals, said of her nomination by Biden to the high court: “The radical Left has won.” Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of
Maine, who also voted to confirm Jackson to the Court of Appeals, issued statements praising her qualifications. But both made clear they would wait until meeting her and watching her testify before the Judiciary Com-
three U.S. judges, including Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, served as an assistant federal public defender in Washington, D.C., and was vice chair, the U.S. Sentencing Commission. 2013–2021 Judge, U.S. District Court, D.C. 2021–2022 Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Washington, D.C., succeeding
Merrick Garland, who became U.S. attorney general.
IF SHE’S CONFIRMED She will become the first Black woman, the third Black person, the sixth woman, and the first public defender ever to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.
mittee before making any decision on her present nomi- nation. “It’s too soon to tell,” former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.,
past member of the Judiciary Committee and the “shep- herd” of Justice Kavanaugh through the confirmation process, told Newsmax: “Much information about her will come out — decisions reversed, etc. “We will get an idea of her judicial philosophy and
judging ability,” he said, “Republicans should simply do their job. Learn about the nominee and act accordingly. “Don’t prejudge, that’s exactly what you don’t want a
judge to do, and senators shouldn’t either.” John L. Napier, retired judge of the U.S. Court of
Federal Claims and someone who has been through the Senate confirmation process, agrees with Kyl that it was “too early to say for sure what her confirmation chances are, but the marker, of course, is that she has withstood two prior confirmations. “Unless something turns up criminal, morally or
ethically repulsive, or philosophically incompatible with our constitutional guarantees,” the retired jurist told us, “deference should be given to the presidential nomina- tion and confirmation granted.” There are, as they say in court, dissenting opinions. Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the con-
servative Heritage Foundation, told Newsmax that Jack- son’s “legal opinions and previous legal work make it clear she doesn’t care what the law or the Constitution says.
“She is more interested in making sure liberal activ-
ists achieve their goals.” As examples, von Spakovsky recalled that “she filed
an amicus brief saying there should be buffer zones around abortion clinics where the First Amendment doesn’t apply. “Yet as a judge she threw out Washington, D.C.’s anti- panhandling law as a violation of the First Amendment. “So when it comes to protesting against abortion, you
have no First Amendment rights, but you do when it comes to begging. She ignores or rewrites the law when it doesn’t suit her political convictions.”
THE BUZZ . . . The Hill: While
confirmation hearings often are reduced to little more than political kabuki theater, Jackson’s hearing will be far more important because of the lack of information about her views on key issues. She has a fraction of the written record of nominees such as
Amy Coney Barrett or Neil Gorsuch.
Politico: Jackson, 51, has been viewed for months as a top contender and fits the bill that Biden and left-leaning activists have sought in the aftermath of Republicans’ successful attempt to pull the judiciary to the right under former President Donald Trump.
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