Ketanji Brown Jackson

2022 - 3 - 20

Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearings live updates (unknown)

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, faces confirmation hearings Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Eternal vigilance, it's been said, is the price of liberty." "If Senator Whitehouse is pleased that you once clerked for a Rhode Island judge, we, in Minnesota, are equally happy that you are wearing bold purple today, winning over both Prince and Minnesota Vikings fans the world over," she joked. "You, judge, are opening a door that's long been shut to so many and by virtue of your strong presence, your skills, your experience, you are showing so many little girls and little boys across the country that anything and everything is possible," she said.

Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings begin – could Republicans sink her chances? (unknown)

Nominee could become first black woman in supreme court's history, and the White House is hoping for a smooth confirmation process.

She has sat on the federal bench since 2013, rising to the US appeals court for the DC circuit last year. Leading Republicans have attempted to use Biden’s selection of a Black woman as a stick with which to beat him. Critical to her chances of success will be whether any moderate Republicans can be lured to back her at a time when opposition senators supporting supreme court nominees has become increasingly rare.

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It was, as presiding Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., put it "in a way...the easiest day," as it consisted of opening statements from members of the Senate Judiciary ...

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Democrats hail Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination; Republicans promise to probe philosophy (unknown)

The Senate Judiciary Committee opens a four-day hearing on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Biden's nominee for the Supreme Court.

“We’re going to see a new generation of children talking about their mamas and daring to write to the president of the United States of America that my mom should be on the Supreme Court,” Booker said. “Well, I want to tell your daughter right now that that dream of hers is so close to being a reality. She can demonstrate commitment and is loyal and never brags.

U.S. Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to start Monday (unknown)

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, will field questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Representation matters,” they said.

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Groups representing law enforcement and victims’ families recommended Jackson, including Patrick Yoes, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, a group which is often aligned against Democrats’ efforts at police reform. “This request falls squarely within the committee’s normal practices.”

But Jackson, of the District of Columbia, has no representation in the Senate.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said some of Hawley’s research was taken out of context and that, as a trial judge, Jackson had largely stayed within sentencing guidelines or issued stronger sentences.

▪ You must give Idaho Capital Sun credit, including https://idahocapitalsun.com and author.▪ If you publish online, include the links from the story, and a link to Idaho Capital Sun.▪ Stories may be edited for in-house style or to shorten. More substantial changes should be noted as additional and conducted by your publication.▪ You can publish our graphics and any photos that are credited to Idaho Capital Sun with the stories with which they originally appeared. “It is essential to fairness, justice, and the Court’s legitimacy. Yoes said Jackson had shown herself to be fair and consistent. But Jackson, of the District of Columbia, has no representation in the Senate.

On Eve of Confirmation Hearings, G.O.P. Steps Up Attacks on Jackson (unknown)

WASHINGTON — Republicans are intensifying their attacks on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson after weeks of publicly reserving judgment on President Biden's Supreme ...

But Mr. Hawley’s accusation added a new element to the debate, focusing more on her time as a federal district court judge and a member of the sentencing commission. Republicans who have met with her report privately that she is very engaging, presents a memorable life story of achievement and speaks admiringly of Justice Antonin Scalia’s view that judges should interpret, not make the law. Judge Jackson’s service as a federal public defender, and her work for some detainees held at the U. S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was always going to be an issue in her confirmation.

Who is Ketanji Brown Jackson? (unknown)

When President Joe Biden introduced her as his nominee for the United States Supreme Court on February 25, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said, ...

“Let us know what Ketanji Brown Jackson’s LSAT score was; how did she do on the LSDAT?” he asked. The dream is possible.'” Stephen Rosenthal, who met her in 7th grade, was a member of that team and a close friend. Jackson, like all successful women of color, is used to facing questions about her credentials. Simmons said, “Of course, she’s had to have an armor. I remember telling her when we were in our dorm, ‘You are going to be the first Black woman on the U. S. Supreme Court.'” You can do this.'” You are the one. She could dazzle with a story, or a song. The three women met the federal court judge when they were all college freshmen at Harvard. You worked hard. You belong here.

Confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson begin Monday. Here's what to expect (unknown)

Next week the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, the federal judge President Biden has tapped as his ...

Last week, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, publicly condemned Jackson's work in cases relating to child sex crimes. With a slim majority of 50 members and Vice President Kamala Harris presiding over the Senate, Democrats have enough support to confirm Jackson along party lines theoretically. Despite her strong candidacy and the semblance of bipartisan support shown last year, Jackson's upcoming battle is expected to be more challenging. In 2017, Republicans exempted Supreme Court nominations from filibuster in hopes of quickly confirming Neil Gorsuch to the high court. This is what the nominee's liberal supporters are saying." The other 20 members of the committee will also give statements, and the day will conclude with Jackson delivering her opening statement, lasting 10 minutes. The hearings, led by the Senate Judiciary Committee, is set to last four days, with Jackson appearing in front of lawmakers during the first three. They help shape a nominee's case and are where any reservations or important questions often come to light. Beginning at 9 a.m. EDT, the committee will hear from outside witnesses and the American Bar Association. Republicans have pressed her on this before, both during her confirmation hearing to serve on the D. C. circuit court last year and during her 2012 nomination to be a federal judge. The Senate Judiciary Committee ultimately votes on whether to report out a nominee's candidacy to the rest of the upper chamber for a final debate and vote, so the hearings are a high-profile step in the process. Find your station here.

Senate to begin historic Supreme Court hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson (unknown)

President Joe Biden's pick, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, goes before the Democratic-led Judiciary Committee on Monday for a high-stakes showdown to replace ...

"This would be absolutely the worst time to have these hearings turned into a political sideshow." White House officials, anticipating attacks on Jackson's judicial philosophy, also plan to defend her approach to judging as being based in fact and law, not ideology, said a source familiar with the strategy. Privately, some Republican senators don’t expect a pitched battle, particularly after they used extraordinary tactics over the last six years to create a 6 to 3 conservative majority on the court. And of course, if there were one, I couldn't opine on it." You started off with a relatively small universe of possible votes." The trend in recent decades has been for high court nominees to reveal as little as possible about how they would rule in major cases. The most recent Trump appointee to the court, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, similarly declined to answer when she was asked about expanding the court at her October 2020 hearing. Last week, Hawley issued a series of tweets arguing that Jackson isn’t tough enough on sex offenders who prey on children. He has said he wants the full Senate to confirm Jackson by April 9. Democrats' priority is to keep their members on board, and so far there has been no stated opposition from within. Monday will provide a glimpse into how contentious the confirmation battle may get before Jackson faces two days of senatorial questioning. “Judge Jackson has been scrutinized more than any person I can think of.

What Ketanji Brown Jackson might be grilled about in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings (unknown)

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has already appeared before the Senate three times in confirmation proceedings for prior roles. But several days of hearings for ...

Who is Ketanji Brown Jackson, Biden’s Supreme Court pick? (unknown)

As Jackson's Senate confirmation hearings get under way, Al Jazeera examines her path to the United States' top court.

It meant a lot to me in my career to have her as an inspiration and I would hope to be an inspiration to other young people, lawyers … who may want to go into the judicial branch.” In 2021, she was confirmed to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit after being nominated by Biden. “I want to go into law and eventually have a judicial appointment,” Jackson said in her 1988 yearbook, CNN reported. “I have spent my life admiring lawyers and judges from all backgrounds, but especially those who are African Americans like me, who have worked very hard to get to where they are,” she said in the video shared online. Jackson has said that she first started thinking about a career in law as a child when her father went back to law school. “I have been inspired by Judge Constance Baker Motley, who was the first Black woman ever to be appointed to the federal bench.

Ketanji Brown Jackson brings varied legal resume to U.S. Supreme Court (unknown)

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If confirmed as its first Black woman justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson would add not only racial and gender di...

And I would think that race would be the kind of thing that would be inappropriate to inject in my evaluation of a case,” Jackson added. She worked from 2005 to 2007 as a court-appointed lawyer paid by the government to represent criminal defendants who could not afford counsel. The Senate confirmed Jackson in 2013 after Democratic former President Barack Obama nominated her as a Washington-based federal district judge. Biden has sought to bring more women and minorities and a broader range of backgrounds to the federal judiciary. The Supreme Court subsequently declined to block that decision. Biden, a Democrat, last year appointed Jackson to an influential Washington-based appellate court after she served eight years as a federal district judge.

Cory Booker hails nomination and the importance of Black joy (unknown)

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson starts four days of Supreme Court nomination hearings, as senators sparred over SCOTUS nominations past and present.

Breyer, who is retiring this year, was the last Supreme Court nominee from a president of either party to win substantial bipartisan support. About 2 in 10 believe that having a Black woman on the court will have a real impact on how cases are decided. That's because Jackson, who Biden nominated to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last year, has already been confirmed three times before. “The appointment of a Black woman to the U. S. Supreme Court – let’s be very blunt –should have happened years ago. "They fly in the face of pledges my colleagues made that they would approach your nomination with civility and respect." Grassley said since Biden announced her as his nominee for the Supreme Court, he encouraged his GOP colleagues to schedule meetings with her. “That’s what Americans want to see in a Supreme Court justice.” “It’s about time we have a highly qualified, highly accomplished Black woman on the Supreme Court. It’s about time the highest court reflects the country it serves. He also hit the administration over rising crime rates, and claimed we are witnessing "a breakdown" of society. “We are showing that we indeed will go deep into the waters of our nation and pull forth the best talent,” Booker said. But we’ll see how they poison hearings in terms of the questions to her,” Jackson Lee said. "This will not be the kind of character smear that sadly our Democratic colleagues have gotten very good at."

What Ketanji Brown Jackson can expect to hear from Republicans this week (unknown)

Keep that in mind as the Senate Judiciary Committee opens hearings Monday on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. If ...

"I didn't have a personal view really ... other than just to make sure that I was making the most convincing argument that I could make on behalf of my clients," she said. The fact is that the bread and butter of the federal courts in Washington, D. C., is administrative law. Jackson, however, emphasized that the case was assigned to her by her employer, a large law firm. Cruz noted that this was a pro bono case and suggested that lawyers rarely work for free unless the client's position reflects their own views. Or does she view the Constitution as establishing broad principles that can be applied to modern times and circumstances. "How can you tell what a judge or justice will do once given a certain measure of discretion based upon what they did when they didn't have discretion?" The Trump and Obama Supreme Court nominees were well schooled in saying as little as possible, and Judge Jackson is no newbie to this dance. But conservative libertarian Erik Jaffe, policy director of a First Amendment advocacy group, counters that Judge Jackson's record isn't much help because the job of a district court judge is to follow precedent. For them, these hearings are their time to strut their stuff, much as some of the Democrats did in questioning Donald Trump's three Supreme Court nominees. That may be because Republicans know the optics of personally attacking a Black woman are less than ideal. In modern times, that means trying to find out what a nominee's views are and, sometimes, to discredit her. Consequently, less than a third of offenders convicted of possessing child pornography are sentenced within the guidelines.

What Ketanji Brown Jackson can expect to hear from Republicans this week (unknown)

Keep that in mind as the Senate Judiciary Committee opens hearings Monday on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. If ...

"I didn't have a personal view really ... other than just to make sure that I was making the most convincing argument that I could make on behalf of my clients," she said. The fact is that the bread and butter of the federal courts in Washington, D. C., is administrative law. Jackson, however, emphasized that the case was assigned to her by her employer, a large law firm. Cruz noted that this was a pro bono case and suggested that lawyers rarely work for free unless the client's position reflects their own views. Or does she view the Constitution as establishing broad principles that can be applied to modern times and circumstances. "How can you tell what a judge or justice will do once given a certain measure of discretion based upon what they did when they didn't have discretion?" The Trump and Obama Supreme Court nominees were well schooled in saying as little as possible, and Judge Jackson is no newbie to this dance. But conservative libertarian Erik Jaffe, policy director of a First Amendment advocacy group, counters that Judge Jackson's record isn't much help because the job of a district court judge is to follow precedent. For them, these hearings are their time to strut their stuff, much as some of the Democrats did in questioning Donald Trump's three Supreme Court nominees. That may be because Republicans know the optics of personally attacking a Black woman are less than ideal. In modern times, that means trying to find out what a nominee's views are and, sometimes, to discredit her. Consequently, less than a third of offenders convicted of possessing child pornography are sentenced within the guidelines.

Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing will be a forum for political attacks (unknown)

Republicans have already used her nomination to go after Democrats for being too "radical."

“I’d like to hear from her why she sentenced the way she did.” 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. It will be accessible via a livestream on the Senate Judiciary Committee website, as well as via C-SPAN. 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.” Republicans, meanwhile, 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. Already, they’ve deemed Jackson far left because of the support she’s received from progressive organizations. Graham, for instance, noted that the “radical Left has won” when Jackson was nominated. 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. 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. 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. “We need to explore why the farthest-left activists in the country desperately wanted Judge Jackson in,” McConnell said.

History-making Ketanji Brown Jackson set for Senate hearing for the Supreme Court (unknown)

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, is going before Congress with the path to her confirmation seemingly ...

Jackson is married to Patrick Johnson, a surgeon in Washington. They have two daughters, one in college and the other in high school. She would take the seat of Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced in January that he would retire this summer after 28 years on the court. Democrats who control the Senate by the slimmest of margins are moving quickly to confirm Jackson, even though Breyer's seat will not officially open until the summer. In addition, Jackson served on the U. S. Sentencing Commission, an independent agency created by Congress to reduce disparity in federal prison sentences. That makes her the first nominee with significant criminal defense experience since Thurgood Marshall, the first Black American to serve on the nation's highest court. She is expected to present an opening statement late in the day, then answer questions from the committee's 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans over the next two days.

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Next week the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, the federal judge President Biden has tapped as his ...

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Historic Senate hearing set on Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination (unknown)

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday opens confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme ...

The White House has said it views courting Republican support for Jackson as important to dialing down partisanship around high court confirmations. She was also confirmed in 2010 as vice chair of the U. S. Sentencing Commission. "When she was ruling on something related to the Trump administration, she tended to rule against them. And so, this attack that we've seen over the last couple of days relies on factual inaccuracies and taking Judge Jackson’s record wildly out of context," Psaki said. "She is not a blank slate. "We know that she is a liberal jurist, but that's a large spectrum," said Sarah Isgur, a former Trump administration attorney and ABC legal analyst. Would you think that was lawful if it happened at a private employer?" Jackson has more experience fielding questions during high-intensity Senate hearings than any nominee since Clarence Thomas in 1991. "If any judicial nominee does have special empathy for some parties over others, that's not an asset, it's a problem." "The lights are as bright as they are in here, in terms of cameras and attention, and you do your best not to make a fool of yourself in front of the senators," Jackson said in a conversation for the D. C. Circuit Historical Society in 2019. He pointed to aspects of her record from law school, the U. S. Sentencing Commission and decisions from the bench to suggest she is "soft on crime." The spotlight on a historic nominee -- and the court itself during such a consequential term of cases -- is also an opportunity for both political parties to appeal to key voting constituencies ahead of the midterm campaign season.

How Ketanji Brown Jackson’s path to the Supreme Court differs from the current justices (unknown)

In some ways, Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, followed a traditional trajectory to the Supreme Court: Harvard Law, Supreme Court clerk ...

Last year, Jackson was appointed by Biden to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often considered the second-highest court. Jackson worked at the federal public defender’s office in D. C. for 2½ years representing indigent clients in criminal cases and detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. As an Obama appointee on the commission after stints at private law firms, Jackson helped rewrite guidelines to reduce recommended penalties for drug-related offenses. In some ways, Jackson, 51, followed a similar trajectory as the court’s nine justices on her way to becoming Biden’s nominee: Harvard Law, Supreme Court clerk, federal appeals judge. “We have seen a much higher incidence of people with public defender backgrounds or civil rights backgrounds being nominated to lower courts as well,” Bannon said. Before that, Jackson served more than eight years as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Justice Sonia Sotomayor is the only sitting justice who spent time as a judge in the trial or district courts. Many of the justices have Harvard ties beyond attending the school. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh was paid to teach at Harvard before his bruising confirmation process elicited protests from hundreds of graduates. (Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who Jackson would replace, also attended public high school.) If confirmed, Jackson will also be the only justice on the new court with experience on the U. S. Sentencing Commission — a bipartisan, independent agency created by Congress in 1984 to reduce disparity and promote transparency and proportionality in sentencing. If confirmed, Jackson will be the first justice with experience as a federal public defender and the first one since Justice Thurgood Marshall with significant experience as a criminal defense attorney on behalf of poor defend­ants. Clerking for a Supreme Court justice is the starting point for 1 in 3 of the justices confirmed since 1950, including six of the nine current justices.

The Court Ketanji Brown Jackson Knew (unknown)

Her experience more than two decades ago as Stephen Breyer's clerk suggests that much about the current Court will be familiar to her.

At issue was a law that Congress had passed in defiance of the decision shortly after the Court’s ruling. Speaking from the bench, the chief justice intoned the familiar warnings and then declared that they had become “part of our national culture.” Because Miranda was a constitutional decision, his written opinion explained, Congress lacked the power to overturn it legislatively. The dire implications for the constitutionality of the federal sentencing guidelines, although largely unacknowledged by the majority, were obvious; under the guidelines, which Justice Breyer had worked on as a Senate staffer and to which he remained deeply committed, judges—not juries—made the key calculations that determined a sentence. The biggest surprise of all came in a decision concerning not a new question but an old one: the validity of the Court’s 1966 landmark case, Miranda v. All that had occurred in the intervening years to change the outcome was that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a member of Justice Breyer’s majority, had retired and Justice Samuel Alito had taken her place. New Jersey, a 5–4 decision that invalidated New Jersey’s hate-crime statute on the grounds that the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury requires that juries rather than judges make the hate-crime finding that leads to an enhanced sentence. The dominance of the conservative bloc, consisting of Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Kennedy, Thomas, Scalia, and O’Connor, was already on display. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had filed a perfervid dissenting opinion in the Stenberg case, wrote the majority opinion in the new case, Gonzales v. Bremerton School District, in which a high-school-football coach asserts a right to pray publicly on the 50-yard line after games in defiance of the school district’s order to stop. Justice Breyer would have been justified in concluding that the decision had settled the question of whether the government could ban a method of abortion without including a health exception. Carhart. By a vote of 5–4, the court struck down a Nebraska law that made it a felony to perform a so-called partial-birth abortion, a potent term invented by abortion-rights opponents to describe a technique sometimes used to terminate a second-trimester pregnancy. Another 5–4 decision invalidated the application to state employees of the federal law against age discrimination in employment; the Court ruled that Congress lacked the power to breach states’ sovereign immunity in this fashion.

On Eve of Confirmation Hearings, G.O.P. Steps Up Attacks on Jackson (unknown)

Last week, Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who sits on the panel and will question Judge Jackson, claimed his review of her judicial record had ...

But Mr. Hawley’s accusation added a new element to the debate, focusing more on her time as a federal district court judge and a member of the sentencing commission. Republicans who have met with her report privately that she is very engaging, presents a memorable life story of achievement and speaks admiringly of Justice Antonin Scalia’s view that judges should interpret, not make the law. Judge Jackson’s service as a federal public defender, and her work for some detainees held at the U. S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was always going to be an issue in her confirmation.

How Ketanji Brown Jackson is preparing for questions about her record on crime (unknown)

Like most every other nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been participating behind closed doors in so-called "moot court" ...

"When I have to sentence someone," she said, "I always explain to them 'This is why your behavior was so harmful to society that Congress thought it had to be made a crime,' and I say, 'This is why I, as the judge, believe that you have to serve these consequences for your decision to engage in criminal behavior.'" In the end, some Republicans may choose not to attack Jackson directly, but instead use her as a proxy for Biden and build conservative momentum on issues that energize the GOP base in the run up to the midterm elections. Brown ultimately received clemency from Obama. Nichols -- no bleeding heart liberal -- who had clerked for a conservative appeals court Judge Laurence Silberman as well as the right leaning Justice Clarence Thomas, would go on to be nominated by President Donald Trump in 2018 for a seat on the US District Court for the District of Columbia. At the White House ceremony in February, Jackson -- perhaps knowing that she might be asked about her incarcerated uncle at her confirmation hearing -- clearly wanted to make an important point. At her hearing, Democratic senators are likely at some point to refer to the fact that she has received an endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police. As Democrats highlight Jackson's unique family history, Republicans may choose to shift attention to her time served as an assistant federal public defender in the District of Columbia. The issue came up less than a year ago during her confirmation hearing for a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Out of the gate, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas asked her if she had "ever represented a terrorist at Guantanamo Bay."She said she had while serving as a public defender. In his tweets Hawley seized on what he called Jackson's pattern as a commissioner and later as a federal judge suggesting she had let child porn offenders "off the hook." Hawley pointed in particular to a series of cases she handled on the bench where he said she deviated from federal sentencing guidelines when sentencing child porn offenders. "I remember thinking very clearly that I felt like I didn't have enough of an idea of what really happened in criminal cases, and I wanted to understand the system," Jackson said. "In addition to my brother, I had two uncles who served decades as police officers, one of whom became the police chief in my hometown of Miami, Florida," she noted. In addition, any talk about the system could allow Jackson to explain her own family's experience straddling the system -- something that could resonate with the public.In the end, by attacking Jackson as soft on crime, Republicans could rally their base in the lead up to the midterms but do little to stop her confirmation.At the White House last month -- in her first public comments about the subject -- Jackson revealed that she had an uncle, Thomas Brown Jr., who got "caught up," she said, in the drug trade and received a life sentence. "A life sentence would be understandable for criminals like Jack the Ripper or Charles Manson, as they were murderers," one family member wrote in a letter addressed to President Barack Obama and the Office of the Pardoning Attorney. "The most heartbreaking thing about Thomas's punishment is that anyone who knows him knows he does not deserve this," the person -- whose name was blacked out -- wrote. Her supporters believe the Republican strategy during the hearings is two-fold: Raise questions about Jackson's experience as a judge, public defender, her time spent on a federal commission that ultimately slashed drug sentences, and briefs she crafted supporting detainees at Guantanamo Bay. After that, they could pivot to attack the policies of the Biden administration in general.But Jackson -- who saw a preview of some similar questions the last time she went before Congress less than a year ago -- will be prepared. McConnell, who in June 2021 voted against Jackson's confirmation to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, said Sunday that he hadn't decided how was going to vote on her Supreme Court nomination. Already, for example, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley launched a Twitter thread on Wednesday charging that Jackson's record reveals a "pattern" of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker.

Who is Ketanji Brown Jackson? (unknown)

Longtime friends of the highly-esteemed judge explain why they believe Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court (if confirmed, she would be the first Black ...

The dream is possible.'" "Let us know what Ketanji Brown Jackson's LSAT score was; how did she do on the LSDAT?" he asked. He said, "She was one of the, if not the, shining star on the team. She wanted to be a judge?" Simmons said, "Of course, she's had to have an armor. She had more hardware, you know, than anybody else." Jackson, like all successful women of color, is used to facing questions about her credentials. I remember telling her when we were in our dorm, 'You are going to be the first Black woman on the U. S. Supreme Court.'" "Yeah. Simone Biles has all these gold medals around her neck. "And not just a lawyer, right? Stephen Rosenthal, who met her in 7th grade, was a member of that team and a close friend. The three women met the federal court judge when they were all college freshmen at Harvard.

At Harvard, Ketanji Brown Jackson Fought Injustices but Kept a Steely Academic Focus (unknown)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — When a Confederate flag was hung from the window of a dormitory at Harvard University more than 30 years ago, members of the Black ...

“Most citizens would be taken aback by a judge, let alone a justice, voting on a case on a university on which she sat on a governing board,” he said. In choosing Judge Jackson, President Biden followed through on a campaign promise to nominate a Black woman for the Supreme Court. Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, is among several legal scholars who have argued that Mr. Biden used “exclusionary criteria” in considering only Black women as potential nominees. During Judge Jackson’s ascent through the federal judiciary, during which she received some Republican support in confirmation votes, she was questioned more than once about the role of race in the justice system.

The sickening Republican smear campaign against Ketanji Brown Jackson (unknown)

The fight over the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court is powerful evidence that our political system is broken like never ...

Nominees are rarely defeated when the president and the Senate are of the same political party. Kyle Martinsen, of the Republican National Committee, emailed reporters that Jackson has a “pattern of advocating for terrorists AND child predators. But as the White House has pointed out, in five of those cases, Judge Jackson imposed the sentences that were the same as or greater than what the United States probation office recommended. He criticizes an article she wrote as a law student and has said that when she was a federal judge there were seven child pornography cases where she gave a sentence less than the Department of Justice recommended. But in our constitutional system, every criminal defendant is entitled to an attorney, and lawyers who perform this role are fulfilling the most noble goals of the legal profession. In the world of law, credentials don’t get better than hers.

McConnell says he hasn't decided how he'll vote on Ketanji Brown Jackson (unknown)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday that he had not decided whether to vote for the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the ...

McConnell’s language is similar to comments made by others in his party about keeping the hearings respectful. And by the way, she’ll be treated much better than Democrats typically treated Republican nominees like Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh,” he added, referencing the two Republican justices who were each accused of sexual misconduct before being confirmed to the court. “I’m going to listen to the evidence,” the Kentucky senator said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I’m going to listen to the hearings.

Ketanji Brown Jackson Fought Injustices While at Harvard (unknown)

During Judge Jackson's ascent through the federal judiciary, during which she received some Republican support in confirmation votes, she was questioned ...

“Most citizens would be taken aback by a judge, let alone a justice, voting on a case on a university on which she sat on a governing board,” he said. In choosing Judge Jackson, President Biden followed through on a campaign promise to nominate a Black woman for the Supreme Court. Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, is among several legal scholars who have argued that Mr. Biden used “exclusionary criteria” in considering only Black women as potential nominees. During Judge Jackson’s ascent through the federal judiciary, during which she received some Republican support in confirmation votes, she was questioned more than once about the role of race in the justice system.

Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court confirmation hearings, day 1 (unknown)

The opening day of hearings before the Committee of the Judiciary is scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. MT / 11:00 a.m. ET.

So far, Republicans aren’t expending much political energy to oppose Jackson and several have even praised her after sitting down with the current federal appeals court judge. KUER will carry live coverage both online and on the radio. Democrats and the White House are hoping that Jackson’s highly impressive resume, empathetic style and historic potential as the first Black female justice will win at least a few crossover votes.

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Read the opening remarks Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson prepared to read on Monday, the first day of her Supreme Court nomination hearing.

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Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson child porn sentences ‘pretty mainstream’ (unknown)

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's sentences for child porn offenders are in line with many others handed down by GOP-appointed judges and deemed "mainstream" by ...

"As far as Senator Hawley is concerned, here's the bottom line: He's wrong," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin said on ABC News "This Week." "He's inaccurate and unfair in his analysis. This is her fourth time before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and three previous times, she came through with flying colors and bipartisan support." Multiple independent fact-checkers, including AP and the Washington Post, have debunked the bulk of Hawley’s claims. "I don't think the three of them would be labeled soft on crime." We need real answers," he tweeted. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a member of the Judiciary Committee, suggested Thursday that regardless of the context around Judge Jackson's sentences he remains concerned.

How to watch the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson (unknown)

Confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will begin Monday, with Democratic leaders setting a goal of reaching ...

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Keep that in mind as the Senate Judiciary Committee opens hearings Monday on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. If ...

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After Three Rounds, Judge Jackson Knows the Confirmation Playbook (unknown)

In her Supreme Court confirmation hearings this week, the judge will draw on her earlier experiences and those of her predecessors.

She has also demonstrated a nimble ability to reframe questions. She has successfully navigated three of them, the most recent one less than a year ago. She knows how to be cordial and noncommittal, to demonstrate mastery of legal materials while avoiding expressing even a hint of an opinion about them.

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