WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate Judiciary Committee's Democratic chairman on Thursday decried Republican attacks on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearing while experts from the nation's leading lawyers group dismissed Republican claims that she was "soft on crime" including child pornography.
The committee held its final of four days of its confirmation hearing for Jackson, who President Joe Biden has nominated to become the first Black woman to serve on the nation's top judicial body. The panel is likely vote on April 4 on whether to send her nomination to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote.
Jackson concluded two days of marathon testimony on Wednesday night, facing repeated attacks by several Republicans who accused her of being lenient in her previous role as a federal trial court judge in sentencing child pornography offenders.
"Some of the attacks on this judge were unfair, unrelenting and beneath the dignity of the United States Senate," said Senator Dick Durbin, the committee's chairman. "You can disagree with a senator's vote, you can disagree with a judge's rulings, but to draw conclusions that really reflect on them personally and their values and take it to an extreme is unfair whether the nominee is a Democrat or a Republican. I was so saddened by that and it happened over and over and over again."
"My lasting impression," Durbin added, "is of a judge who sat there through it all, head held high, with dignity and determination and strength. A lesser person might have picked up and told her family, 'We're leaving, this is beyond the pale.' She didn't. And it says an awful lot to me about her character and why the president was correct in choosing her to be the next Supreme Court justice."
The most hostile questioning came from Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Marsha Blackburn.
The committee on Thursday heard from outside witnesses offering their views on Jackson's record and qualifications, including members of the American Bar Association, which has evaluated Jackson as "well qualified" for the job. Jackson herself was not present.
Durbin asked Ann Williams, one of the bar association witnesses, whether in the group's examination of Jackson's record any evidence emerged that she was "soft on crime."
"None whatsoever," Williams said.
Williams said that in interviews with 250 lawyers and judges who had first-hand knowledge of Jackson's career, none of them brought up issues involving her sentencing of child pornography defendants.
Another bar association witness, Joseph Drayton, said he had specifically talked to prosecutors and defense lawyers about the issue.
"None of them felt that she demonstrated bias in any way," Drayton said.
The bar association witnesses were members of the organization's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.
Her confirmation would not change the court's ideological balance – it has a 6-3 conservative majority – but would let Biden freshen its liberal bloc with a 51-year-old jurist young enough to serve for decades. The Democratic president nominated Jackson last month to the lifetime post to succeed retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.
So far, there is no sign that the Republican attacks are likely to derail Jackson's confirmation, with Democrats narrowly controlling the Senate. With a simple majority needed for confirmation and the Senate divided 50-50 between the parties, she would get the job if Democrats remain united regardless of how the Republicans vote.
If confirmed, Jackson would be the 116th justice to serve on the high court, the sixth woman and the third Black person. With Jackson on the bench, the court for the first time would have four women and two Black justices.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)
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