Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings to Begin March 21

(Bloomberg) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee plans four days of hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to serve on the Supreme Court beginning on March 21, with the aim of holding a confirmation vote in early April.

That schedule “will provide committee members with ample opportunity to question the nominee and other witnesses,” Chairman Dick Durbin wrote in a letter Wednesday to members of the panel.

Democrats are setting a rapid pace to confirm Jackson to the high court in a 50-50 Senate that gives them little margin for error. President Joe Biden nominated Jackson on Feb. 25 to become the nation's first Black female Supreme Court justice.

Jackson was confirmed last year to the influential D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and earlier served as a District Court judge. That means she has been vetted by the Senate committee and has already gone through FBI screening, which can help speed the process.

“I think the nomination's moving along on an appropriate timeline,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Wednesday in an interview with the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. The schedule for Jackson, he added, is roughly six or seven weeks from nomination to confirmation, similar to the 1993 proceedings for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

This month's hearings will include an opening day where committee members will speak before Jackson provides an initial statement. That will be followed by two days of questions by senators, and a fourth day featuring testimony from outside groups and the American Bar Association.

Durbin said he's hoping for a bipartisan vote for Jackson, and that he's reaching out to about half a dozen Republican senators that he thinks might support her.

Jackson was in the Capitol on Wednesday, beginning the first of many days of individual meetings with senators. She met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Durbin and Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee.