Jackson Promises ‘Neutral Posture’ as Approach to Deciding Cases

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson told a divided Senate panel she was an independent thinker who decides cases “from a neutral posture,” as she began testifying at a hearing on her nomination to be the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Saying that federal judges have a limited constitutional role and are constrained by precedent, Jackson said she would seek to carry on the legacy of the retiring justice she would succeed, liberal consensus-builder Stephen Breyer.

“During this hearing, I hope that you will see how much I love our country and the Constitution and the rights that make us free,” Jackson said Monday in her opening statement at the Judiciary Committee hearing.

WATCH: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson promises to take a “neutral posture” on cases.

Source: Bloomberg

Her comments came at the end of a day spent listening as Republican senators on the panel vowed to scrutinize her approach toward the Constitution and the child-pornography sentences she imposed as a trial judge. Republicans also re-aired grievances over the bitter 2018 confirmation of now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the sexual-assault allegations he angrily and tearfully denied at his hearing.

“There won’t be this constant attack on you like Judge Kavanaugh and other conservative judicial appointments,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Jackson.

Barring a major mishap, the Democrats’ narrow control of the Senate means Jackson’s confirmation is all but assured. Though she won’t shift the ideological balance on the conservative-controlled court, the 51-year-old judge would add a fresh voice to its outnumbered liberal wing and potentially serve for decades.

Jackson served as a law clerk to Breyer shortly after she graduated from Harvard Law School. She would take his seat after the court’s current term ends in late June or early July.

Breyer “exemplifies what it means to be a Supreme Court justice of the highest level of skill and integrity, civility, and grace,” Jackson said. “It is extremely humbling to be considered for Justice Breyer’s seat, and I know that I could never fill his shoes. But if confirmed, I would hope to carry on his spirit.”

Jackson spoke with her husband, daughter, parents and other family members behind her in the audience. She will answer questions from senators Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearing on March 21.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Democrats extolled Jackson’s qualifications, including her criminal-law background. She would be the first former public defender ever to serve on the high court.

“You have the experience and record of a jurist who is dedicated to the fair application of the law, committed to consensus and determined to make sure that the court and the Constitution work for the people of today,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota.

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said Jackson’s background is “a much-needed asset to the court.”

GOP senators say they will probe Jackson about her work as a public defender and her representation of alleged terrorists held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Republicans are seeking to use the hearings to question President Joe Biden’s commitment to law and order.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri sought to characterize Jackson as consistently imposing light sentences on people convicted of having child pornography when she was a federal district judge. Hawley said he had found seven cases in which “Judge Jackson handed down a lenient sentence that was below what the federal guidelines recommended and below what prosecutors requested.”

Sentencing experts and lawyers across the political spectrum have criticized Hawley’s argument as misleading at best, with prominent conservative former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy calling the senator’s claims “meritless to the point of demagoguery” in the National Review.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois told Jackson, without referring to Hawley by name, that his allegations “fly in the face of pledges my colleagues made that they would approach your nomination with civility and respect.” Durbin is the chairman of the committee.

Senator Dick Durbin, right, speaks during a confirmation hearing for Ketanji Brown Jackson on March 21.

Photographer: J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo/Bloomberg

Republicans vowed to press on her approach toward interpreting the Constitution and suggested skepticism about a written response she gave to questions when the Senate considered her nomination to a federal appeals court last year. “I do not have a judicial philosophy per se,” Jackson said at the time.

“Someone who is as accomplished as you are, who has spent years engaging and thinking about our Constitution and laws has surely formed a judicial philosophy,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas said. “This is not your first rodeo.”

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said it was “fair game” to question Jackson about abortion, gun rights and school choice.

Republicans also signaled they will focus on calls by some Democrats and progressive groups to add seats to the Supreme Court to counter a raft of Republican-appointed justices. The Constitution doesn’t say how many justices the court must have, but Congress has left the number at nine since 1869.

“Nine is a number that works,” Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah said. “It’s worked now for 152 years.”

Adding Diversity

Jackson would diversify the court in multiple ways. She would be the second justice to have served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. She would give the nine-member court four women and three ethnic minorities for the first time.

She would join Justice Sonia Sotomayor as the only two current justices with experience as a U.S. district judge, a position Jackson held for eight years before Biden elevated her to a powerful federal appeals court in Washington.

Her nomination so far hasn’t produced the kind of political fireworks that surrounded President Donald Trump’s picks -- Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Kavanaugh.

Almost all of the Republicans are hinting strongly at a “no” vote, and Graham is indicating he might join them -- despite backing every Supreme Court nominee since he came to office in 2003.

--With assistance from Jordan Rubin.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net;
Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net;
Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net

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