“It is going to be an historic second on Monday, as Choose Jackson seems earlier than the committee,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin stated on the Senate flooring final week. “Her {qualifications} are distinctive. In each function she’s held, she has earned a repute for thoughtfulness, evenhandedness, and collegiality.”
The 2 days of Jackson questioning will start Tuesday, after a spherical of proceedings Monday that includes opening statements and her introduction.
Here’s what would possibly come up at her listening to.
‘Mushy on crime’ framing
Senate Judiciary Republicans have grilled decrease court docket nominees on legal justice insurance policies that they describe as tender on crime. And in flooring remarks on Thursday, Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell previewed that concentrate on Jackson. His speech critiqued the reward she has acquired from supporters for the way her expertise as a public defender provides her “empathy” as a choose.
“Even amidst the nationwide crime wave, a disproportionate share of the brand new judges President (Joe) Biden has nominated share this skilled background that liberals say provides particular empathy for legal defendants,” the Kentucky Republican stated. He added that Biden “is intentionally working to make the entire federal judiciary tender on crime.”
Jackson could level to her private background to counter this assault, as she has finished earlier than. With an uncle who was prosecuted for a drug offense, and a number of other members of her household — together with her brother — who served in legislation enforcement, Jackson has relationships that she says have helped her see either side of the difficulty.
Scrutiny of her strategy to youngster porn offenses
An extension of the “tender on crime” assault is the declare, considerably misleadingly made by GOP Sen. Josh Hawley final week, that Jackson is tender on youngster pornography crimes.
His claims depend on two components: First is her sentencing document in some instances, which is throughout the mainstream of what number of different judges strategy the offenses in query; second are statements she’s made in regards to the authorized points round intercourse crimes, together with in a 1996 legislation assessment article and in her function on the sentencing fee.
Among the sentencing fee feedback Hawley highlighted had been in response to the testimony of witnesses at fee hearings. A assessment of the listening to transcript and interviews with two consultants who testified belie the declare that Jackson confirmed leniency towards youngster pornography throughout a daylong session that Hawley quoted from in questioning her document. Nonetheless, the Missouri Republican has stood by his criticism.
Work on the US Sentencing Fee
Along with the fee work on youngster intercourse crimes, different elements of Jackson’s tenure there might come up. Earlier than serving as vice chair, she served a two-year stint as an assistant particular counsel for the fee within the mid-2000s.
Republicans are poring over 1000’s of paperwork for extra data on the stances she took whereas working for the fee.
Assist from teams that push Supreme Courtroom enlargement
At her 2021 listening to, a number of Republicans requested her in regards to the assist her nomination had acquired from the left-wing group Demand Justice and different progressive organizations which have advocated for increasing the variety of justices on the Supreme Courtroom. Jackson declined to weigh in on the thought.
Her refusal to reply the query in her current assembly with McConnell, in line with his account of their dialogue, has prompted criticism from the Kentucky Republican.
Anticipate Democrats to notice that Trump nominee and now Justice Amy Coney Barrett
also dodged the court docket enlargement query when she was testifying in her Supreme Courtroom affirmation listening to.
Does she have a judicial philosophy?
Republicans say they weren’t happy that Jackson didn’t elaborate on a particular judicial philosophy — similar to originalism or the “dwelling Structure” strategy — throughout her DC Circuit nomination listening to. They’re more likely to ask questions that attempt to suss out extra about how she approaches the legislation.
Advocacy for Guantanamo Bay prisoners
As a public defender, Jackson represented a Guantanamo Bay detainee, however it’s her advocacy for detainees whereas she labored at a non-public agency that Republicans are significantly skeptical of.
“More often than not you’ve got a alternative of who your purchasers are. And generally you ought to simply say, simply say no,” Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee, instructed CNN earlier this month.
The advocacy got here within the type of amici briefs, penned whereas an legal professional on the agency Morrison & Foerster, supporting detainees in instances earlier than the Supreme Courtroom. A 5-4 ruling, with then-Justice Anthony Kennedy becoming a member of the 4 justices within the liberal wing on the time, in a case known as Boumediene v. Bush established that Guantanamo prisoners had habeas corpus rights.
Choices in politically charged instances
Jackson has twice dominated in opposition to former President Donald Trump or his administration in instances regarding the disclosure of data from his White Home.
The primary was the 2019 opinion she penned as a district court docket choose wherein she wrote that “Presidents are usually not Kings” whereas rejecting the Trump administration’s argument that White Home counsel Don McGahn was completely immune from a congressional subpoena. (After a number of twists on the DC Circuit degree, the case was finally settled by the Biden administration).
Late final 12 months, Jackson was on the DC Circuit panel that unanimously rejected Trump’s makes an attempt to stop the discharge of his White Home information to the Home committee investigating the January 6 rebellion — a call the Supreme Courtroom refused to overturn.
Republicans could search to distinction these rulings favoring disclosure with a 2015 Freedom of Data Act resolution she issued shielding the emails of an aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Ruling in opposition to Trump administration immigration initiatives
In 2019, Jackson halted a Trump administration transfer to broaden the classes of noncitizens that could be subjected to expedited deportation procedures in a ruling that finally was reversed on enchantment.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, introduced up the case throughout Jackson’s 2021 circuit court docket nomination listening to.
“I’ve plenty of immigration instances and in these instances — just like the one you talked about — what I’m doing is, I’m evaluating the … immigration legal guidelines’ very complicated scheme, the info within the explicit case and the claims which are being made, the arguments of the events,” Jackson stated on the time. “I’m not assessing the coverage.”
Jackson additionally notably dismissed Trump-era lawsuits in search of to problem the constructing of a wall alongside the US Southern border.
Professional-labor rulings in opposition to Trump-era public union insurance policies
In two separate instances — a 2022 DC Circuit case and a 2018 district court docket opinion — Jackson issued rulings principally favorable to labor that challenged Trump-era insurance policies focusing on public unions.
Service on Montrose Christian College board
The time Jackson spent on the board of Montrose Christian College, a non-public Christian college in Maryland, between 2010 and 2011 was a subject of Republican questioning in her appellate affirmation listening to, the place she distanced herself from the stances the college took in opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion.
Whereas asserting her dedication to the ideas of spiritual liberty, she stated on the 2021 affirmation listening to, “I’ve served on many boards and I do not essentially agree with the entire statements of all of the issues that these boards may need of their supplies.”
Abortion rights–associated advocacy
Jackson has not issued any substantive opinions on abortion rights. However as a district court docket choose, she halted the Trump administration’s makes an attempt to dam federal funding to Deliberate Parenthood.
Her work as a non-public legal professional, on an amicus transient supporting a Massachusetts clinic’s buffer zone legislation, has additionally attracted the ire of anti-abortion rights teams. The Supreme Courtroom finally struck down the legislation.
CNN’s Alex Rogers contributed to this story.