Ketanji Brown Jackson Faces GOP Digging In on Her Way to Supreme Court

(Bloomberg) -- Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is all but certain to secure a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Senate's deep partisan divide and Democrats' slim margin were underscored Monday when one senator's flight troubles delayed a Judiciary Committee vote on her nomination for several hours.

Senator Alejandro Padilla, a California Democrat on the committee, was delayed in his travel back to Washington when a passenger had a medical emergency and his flight returned to Los Angeles, a spokesperson said. He is expected to arrive in Washington in the late afternoon Monday.

Padilla's vote is needed to secure an expected 11-11 outcome on the evenly divided committee, which would set up a procedural vote by the full Senate before Jackson's expected confirmation later this week.

Senate rules don't allow an affirmative vote by proxy in committee. Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin recessed the panel's hearing until Padilla arrives, after which a vote can be held.

The Judiciary Committee hearing Monday was called to consider whether to advance to the full Senate the nomination of Jackson, a federal judge would be the first Black woman to serve on the high court.

There appears to be little standing in the way of the final outcome. Democrats in the 50-50 Senate have the votes to confirm her on their own, and at least one Republican -- Susan Collins of Maine -- says she will be supporting Jackson.

If the committee is tied, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to set up a vote of the entire chamber to bring the nomination to the floor. If that vote succeeds as expected, likely on Monday, senators will start debating the confirmation on Tuesday, and she could be confirmed as soon as Thursday.

Republican and Democratic senators continued sparring over Jackson's selection as the committee met on Monday.

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who voted in 2021 to confirm Jackson to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, said the nominee would be the first Supreme Court pick he would vote against. Graham has accused Jackson of judicial activism, flawed sentencing methodology regarding child pornography cases and advocating for liberal causes.

“After four days of hearings, I now know why the left likes her so much,” Graham said.

Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, defended Jackson's record on sentencing criminals and said she made clear at the hearings she uses a careful methodology in making rulings that keep her focused tightly on existing law and the facts of each case.

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“The nation saw the temperament of a good, strong person ready to serve on the highest court in the land,” Durbin said.

Jackson, who serves now on the influential D.C. appellate court, faced tough and often intense questioning at her confirmation hearings a little more than a week ago.

Republicans questioned her record on crime and probed for her views on volatile issues such as abortion. In particular, four GOP senators including Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, accused her of being far too lenient in sentencing defendants convicted of possession of child pornography while she was a U.S. District Court judge in Washington from 2013 to 2021.

Jackson, 51, would be the sixth female justice in the court's history, the third African American and the first to have once been a federal public defender. She would succeed the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she once worked as a law clerk. Confirmation won't alter the court's conservative tilt but would add a fresh voice to its three-member liberal wing.

The nomination is President Joe Biden's first to a court whose conservative majority is poised to transform the law, potentially expanding gun rights, slashing federal regulatory power and overturning the constitutional right to abortion.