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Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation Wednesday’s hearing began with a tense exchange GOP complaints of Senator Dick Durbin’s “editorial comments,” which he defended as his privilege.
But tensions quickly dissipated when Sen. John Osaf, D.C., the least senior member of the Senate, asked his fellow senators to end the “dispute”.
Sen. John Cornin, Texas, began the exchange with complaints that Durbin, Illinois, chairman of the committee, consistently undermined the comments of Republican senators on Tuesday after they questioned Jackson.
Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, stops during a hearing to approve Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
(AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster)
KETANJI BROWN JACKSON HEARS DOCORUM FAR AWAY FROM KAVANAUG’S CONFIRMATION: “DO IT YOURSELF”
“I noticed that after each series of interrogations on this side of the aisle, you choose the editorial office and contradict what is being said,” Cornin said. “I don’t know if we will have an equal opportunity for editorial work.”
Senator John F. Kennedy, R-La., Supported Cornyn. He specifically criticized Durbin for naming Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., In these editorial comments, not giving him a chance to respond.
Durbin, however, said it was his right as chairman of the committee to make such comments.
Senator John Cornin, Texas, is questioning Supreme Court candidate Ketanji Brown Jackson during a Senate Judicial Committee approval hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
(Photo by AP / Andrei Garnik)
“It’s called chairman’s time. It’s a tradition on this committee that Senator Lindsey Graham has as chairman and Senator Grasley,” Durbin said.
Kennedy interrupted Durbin, but Durbin said in response that he would know Kennedy only after he expressed his opinion “without a break.”
“There will be no separate set of rules for the Democrats who control this committee. These senators have been used again and again as a response,” Durbin said. “And it was accepted. If what I said yesterday was any problem or painful, sorry, but Democrats are going to use the same mechanism that Republicans used on this committee.”
Shortly afterwards, Osaf asked the committee to turn its attention to Jackson herself.
Senator John Osaf, Georgia, who was then a candidate for the Senate, addresses the crowd during an open-air rally on December 5, 2020 in Conners, Georgia.
(Jessica McGowan / Getty Images)
“The American public is now involved in these processes, awaiting a substantive discussion of issues that are of great importance to the country with a candidate for the Supreme Court before us,” he said. “I don’t think we set the right tone, arguing with time and process at the very beginning of the review.”
Osaf added: “I would humbly ask a member of Grasley’s rating to make a statement. … Senator Tillis and I have the opportunity to interview the candidate, and then we can argue with the scores and strikes from yesterday’s hearing. Will it be acceptable to the committee?”
“In the name of your humility, we must do this,” Durbin said as the hearing room erupted in laughter at Osawa’s comment.
Supreme Court candidate Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies during a hearing approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
(Photo by AP / Andrei Garnik)
Wednesday is the second and final day that senators are publicly questioning Jackson in the process of approving her. Osaf and Sen. Tom Tillis, of RN.C., begin the hearing with a 30-minute interrogation after they had no opportunity to speak with Jackson on Tuesday.
Then all 22 senators on the committee will be allowed to interrogate Jackson for 20 minutes. Thursday will be the last day of Jackson’s hearings with external experts invited to testify against the candidate.
Wednesday’s hearing is likely to be controversial, and Republicans have spoken out about Jackson’s treatment of criminals, especially child pornography offenders. Democrats say the line of interrogation of Republicans is invalid and that Jackson is at the forefront of federal judges when it comes to sentencing such criminals.
Senator Ted Cruz, Texas, on Tuesday also questioned Jackson about critical textbooks on race theory used in the private elementary school Jackson serves on. And Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Pushed Jackson to define the word “woman,” which Jackson declined. It is possible that both of these topics will also emerge on Thursday.
