Committee hearings for President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court (SCOTUS) nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, will begin on March 21 and last four days according to Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Amid a flurry of speculation and rumors before Breyer officially announced his retirement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden would stand by his 2020 campaign promise to nominate a black woman to SCOTUS; though several women have sat on the panel, a black woman has not.
Several conservatives have decried the move, which they have said puts a nominee’s race and sex ahead of their qualifications for the job.
On Feb. 25, Biden announced that Jackson—who currently serves as a judge on the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals—was his pick to replace Breyer.
“On Friday, President Biden announced the historic nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court,” Durbin said. “Consistent with the Committee’s longstanding tradition, the hearings will last four days, which will provide Committee members with ample opportunity to question the nominee and other witnesses.”
Durbin then explained what the timeline will look like once hearings are underway.
“The hearings will begin on Monday, March 21, with statements from Committee members, the individuals who will introduce Judge Jackson, and Judge Jackson herself,” Durbin said. “Questioning of Judge Jackson will begin on Tuesday, March 22 and continue on Wednesday, March 23.
“The Committee will also meet in closed session on Wednesday, March 23 to discuss any matters relating to the nominee’s FBI background investigation.
“The Committee,” Durbin hastened to add, “does this for every Supreme Court nominee, regardless of whether the background investigation has raised concerns. The hearings will conclude on Thursday, March 24, with testimony from the American Bar Association (ABA) and additional outside witnesses.”
“Written Questions for the Record (QFRs) will be due to the nominee by 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 24.
“As I have said from the time that Justice Breyer announced his retirement, the Committee will undertake a fair and timely process to consider Judge Jackson’s nomination,” Durbin concluded. “I look forward to Judge Jackson’s appearance before the Committee and to respectful and dignified hearings.”
Since the 1990s, SCOTUS confirmation battles have become increasingly partisan. Prior to 1991, almost every SCOTUS nominee was confirmed by vast, bipartisan margins.
In 1991, then-Sen. Joe Biden led an effort to frame Clarence Thomas, who was nominated by President George H. W. Bush, as a sexual predator. Though he was confirmed by a vote of 52–48, including the support of 11 Democrats, the battle marked a major turning point in the Senate’s approach to SCOTUS confirmation.
A similar scene played out in 2018. After President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat, a California professor alleged that Kavanaugh had raped her at a party in the late-1980s. Though she had little evidence to back this claim, most Democrats considered it grounds to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Like Thomas, Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote was the narrowest possible, with 50 senators supporting the nomination. Swing-voting Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) was the only Democrat who voted to confirm Kavanaugh; Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted “present.”
Republicans have also pushed partisan goals through the SCOTUS confirmation process.
Following Justice Antonin Scalia’s unexpected death in 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) demurred, saying that it was inappropriate to confirm a nominee so close to an election.
Then in October 2020, Republicans pushed ahead with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, who Trump nominated to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The move heavily frustrated Democrats and even Manchin, who had voted for Trump’s first two nominees, opposed Barrett’s confirmation, citing the proximity to an election.
No Republicans have yet said they’ll vote for the judge, and at least one who voted for her in the past indicated he would not this time.
Jackson’s nomination “means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the top GOP member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. Graham, who supported Jackson in 2021, expressed his displeasure that the president didn’t pick U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs, who hails from South Carolina.
McConnell said the Senate must perform an exhaustive review of the nominee, calling it “especially crucial as Americans families face major crises that connect directly to our legal system, such as skyrocketing violent crime and open borders.”
Given the increasingly partisan nature of these confirmation battles, it is likely that the hearings will involve tough scrutiny of the nominee’s voting record.
