Choose Ketanji Brown Jackson delivers her opening remarks on Monday. (Sarah Silbiger for CNN)
Choose Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court docket affirmation hearings kicked off Monday with greater than 4 hours of speeches from senators, introductions of Jackson by two of her colleagues and remarks from the nominee herself.
Jackson’s opening assertion touched on her humble background and the gratitude she felt towards those that have boosted her authorized ascent. She and her supporters emphasised the “unbiased” method she brings to the bench, whereas Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats argued her affirmation will make the excessive courtroom extra reflective of the nation it serves.
Whereas they’d previewed the elements of Jackson’s file they intend to scrutinize, Republicans launched a collection of broadsides towards Democrats for a way they’ve dealt with the confirmations of GOP nominees.
Listed here are takeaways from day one:
Jackson leans into gratitude and humility
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A lot of Jackson’s opening remarks had been weighted towards her upbringing, and the gratitude she felt towards her dad and mom in addition to her religion.
As she affirmed her “due to God,” she stated, “First of my many blessings is the truth that I used to be born on this nice Nation” in 1970, within the decade after Congress handed two main civil rights payments.
Her identify, “Ketanji Onyika,” means “pretty one,” she advised the committee — an expression of her dad and mom’ “delight of their heritage and hope for the long run.”
She recounted the curiosity in legislation she developed from watching her father examine legislation, whereas praising the “glorious mentors” she had in highschool and within the judges that she clerked for.
“Justice (Stephen) Breyer not solely gave me the best job that any younger lawyer may ever hope to have, however he additionally exemplifies what it means to be a Supreme Court docket justice of the very best degree of talent and integrity, civility, and style,” she stated, referring to the justice she each clerked for and would change if confirmed.
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“This can be very humbling to be thought of for Justice Breyer’s seat, and I do know that I may by no means fill his footwear,” she added. “But when confirmed, I’d hope to hold on his spirit.”
Jackson vows “unbiased” method to legislation, which supporters echoed
Jackson stated she took “very critically” her duty to defend the Structure and her “responsibility to be unbiased.”
“I resolve circumstances from a impartial posture,” she stated. “I consider the info, and I interpret and apply the legislation to the info of the case earlier than me, with out concern or favor, in keeping with my judicial oath.”
That description of her method comes as Republicans have criticized her refusal to align herself with a particular judicial philosophy, like originalism or pragmatism.
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On Monday, a outstanding conservative choose vouched for a way she approached her position as a jurist.
“Choose Jackson is an unbiased jurist who adjudicates primarily based on the info and the legislation and never as a partisan,” stated retired Choose Thomas Griffith, a Republican appointee who served on the US Court docket of Appeals of the DC Circuit. “Repeatedly, she has demonstrated that impartiality on the bench.”
Democrats search to make her listening to in regards to the public’s religion within the courtroom
Democrats repeatedly reminded their public viewers of the excessive stakes of those affirmation fights, referencing the foremost circumstances earlier than a Supreme Court docket that’s dominated by conservatives as they sought to attach the historic nature of Jackson’s nomination to the general public’s religion within the courtroom.
As is frequent in these hearings, Democratic senators touched on authorized points that resonate with their base — with allusions to Supreme Court docket circumstances coping with well being care, abortion rights, gun management and the atmosphere.
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“The American individuals, our constituents … and their religion within the courts, that is central to our democracy,” stated Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. “They lose their religion, then democracy loses. The selections made in our courts — and finally within the Supreme Court docket — have an effect on the day by day lives of every one among us.”
As a result of Jackson, if confirmed, will change a fellow liberal, her appointment by itself possible will not change the 6-3 conservative-to-liberal vote rely on these varied points. However Democrats pressured different ways in which Jackson — by means of the demographic {and professional} range she’d deliver — will give the courtroom new views and enrich the arrogance that Individuals place in it.
Republicans harp on the therapy Kavanaugh obtained from Democrats
It was greater than three years in the past that Supreme Court docket Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed after a tumultuous and high-octane set of hearings that examined the Judiciary Committee’s relationships. However regardless of time, their victory and subsequent affirmation of one other conservative justice, Republicans made clear Monday they can not see Jackson’s nomination with out the context of Kavanaugh’s.
Although Republicans have pledged to grab on her previous writings, rulings and sentences, almost each Republican member of the panel pledged to attract a line.
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“No Republican senator goes to unleash on you an assault about your character when the listening to is nearly over,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina stated in his opening assertion, alluding to the way it was late within the course of when allegations towards Kavanaugh had been revealed.
Learn extra about key moments from Jackson’s first day of Supreme Court docket affirmation hearings right here.
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An Azerbaijan Airlines plane carrying 62 passengers and five crew has crashed while making an emergency landing at a Kazakhstan airport, with 29 survivors, including two children, taken to hospital.
Videos on local media showed a large explosion after the aircraft crashed into an empty field. Images from the scene showed passengers climbing out of the tail of the fuselage aided by emergency workers.
Those aboard were from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Russian state Ria news agency reported, citing Kazakhstan’s transport ministry.
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Local media outlets reported that nine of those taken to hospital were in serious condition and that search and rescue operations were under way.
The plane, an Embraer 190, was travelling to Grozny in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, but was diverted to Aktau after flying into heavy fog.
Early media reports suggested that the plane hit a flock of birds, which affected control of the aircraft.
“After a collision with birds, due to an emergency situation on board the aircraft, its commander decided to go to an alternate airfield and Aktau was chosen,” Ria reported, citing Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsia. Local media also shared unconfirmed reports of an explosion of an oxygen canister onboard, leading many passengers to lose consciousness.
Baku has sent an official delegation to Kazakhstan to investigate the incident, Azerbaijan’s APA news agency said. The country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, left an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Russia to return to Baku. He expressed his condolences to the those affected by the crash.
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Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had also extended his condolences to Azerbaijan’s leader.
Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased on social media. “We pray to the Almighty for [the survivors’] recovery.”
Photos on social media showed relatives gathering in Grozny airport to wait for news of their loved ones.
One man at Grozny airport said he had just received a video in which he could see his nephew had survived the crash. “Of course I am very happy,” he told a Ria news reporter.
The incident took place in Midtown Manhattan near Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square near the corner of West 34th Street and Avenue of the Americas, or Sixth Avenue. The store, with its elaborately decorated display windows, is a magnet for tourists and native New Yorkers around the holidays.
In addition to the 58-year-old taxi driver, the injured included a 9-year-old boy, two women aged 49 and four other women aged 19, 37 and 41, police added.
One 49-year-old woman with a leg injury, the 9-year-old boy who suffered a cut and the 41-year-old woman who sustained an injury to her head were taken to hospital, police said.
The remaining three pedestrians declined medical attention, according to police, which added that all injuries were non-life-threatening.
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Media images of the cab showed a heavily damaged vehicle with broken parts and dents all over it.
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Russia has carried out a Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system, leaving more than half a million people without heating, water and electricity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack, the 13th large-scale assault of 2024 on the country’s grid, was “deliberate” and not a coincidence. “What could be more inhuman?” he wrote on X.
About 50 of the 70 missiles fired in the attack were intercepted, along with a “significant” portion of the more than 100 attack drones deployed, he added.
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This year Ukrainians marked Christmas Day on December 25 for the second time, after switching to the western Gregorian calendar last year. The decision to stop celebrating Christmas on January 7 in line with the Orthodox calendar was made by Kyiv to break with Russian influence.
Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, told Ukraine’s national television news that the attack had left more than 500,000 people without heating, water and electricity.
Temperatures across Ukraine are around freezing point.
Heating supplies were also cut in some areas of Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, in the west and south of the country.
Ukraine’s energy grid operator, Ukrenergo, urged consumers to limit consumption by not switching on multiple appliances at once, adding that the system was still recovering from the previous Russian attack on December 13.
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Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said that its power stations had been damaged and one of its long-term employees killed.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, said on X that the attack reflects Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to “those who spoke about illusionary ‘Christmas ceasefire’”.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said last week that Zelenskyy had rejected his proposal for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange on the January 7 Orthodox Christmas.
Ukraine denied that such a proposal was ever on the table, asking Hungary to “refrain from manipulations” regarding the war. On Friday, Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, described it as “PR, a move” by Orbán.
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