Watch live: Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Jackson faces the Senate Judiciary Committee

Decide Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s historic nominee to the Supreme Court docket, goes earlier than an evenly divided Senate committee this week, the place she is more likely to be sharply questioned by Republicans about her previous work as a public defender.

The primary Black lady to nominated to the excessive court docket, Jackson has the strong help of Democrats, who can verify her with out GOP help because of a tiebreaking vote by Vice President Kamala Harris, president of the Senate.

However this week might show to be an uncomfortable ordeal for the nominee, because the Judiciary Committee has a number of Republicans who’ve presidential ambitions — giving them a major alternative to enchantment to GOP voters.

“I feel each events wish to decrease the temperature of the Supreme Court docket hearings, however there are a number of firebrands on the Republican aspect who should not more likely to go alongside,” mentioned Sarah Binder, a Brookings Establishment scholar who tracks judicial nominations.

They embody Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who mentioned final week he discovered an “alarming sample” during which Jackson favored lighter jail phrases for these convicted of possessing baby pornography. The correct degree of punishment for such defendants has been a lot debated, and the problem got here earlier than the U.S. Sentencing Fee, the place Jackson served for a number of years.

A White Home spokesman described Hawley’s cost for instance of “poisonous … misinformation.”

Since Jackson graduated from Harvard Regulation Faculty in 1996, she has labored steadily as a lawyer. She clerked for 3 judges, together with on the Supreme Court docket, labored briefly at 4 regulation corporations, served eight years as a U.S. district choose and one yr as a choose on the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

However essentially the most cited side of her authorized profession is the 2 years she spent within the federal public defender’s workplace in Washington starting in 2005. These attorneys symbolize individuals charged with federal offenses, just lately together with a lot of these charged with assault on the Capitol through the Jan. 6 rebellion final yr.

Progressives say her time there means she would deliver a special perspective to the excessive court docket. Since Justice Thurgood Marshall retired in 1991, the court docket has not had a justice who had represented legal defendants.

However Republicans pointed to the identical service as proof she could also be unduly sympathetic to criminals.

“Liberals are saying that Decide Jackson’s service as a legal protection lawyer after which on the U.S. Sentencing Fee give her particular empathy for convicted criminals,” Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) mentioned final week. “I suppose that signifies that authorities prosecutors and harmless crime victims begin every trial at a drawback.”

Final yr, throughout her listening to for the appeals court docket, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned her about representing a number of detainees who had been being held on the U.S. navy jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) requested if she was involved about placing “extra violent criminals again on the streets.”

They’re more likely to increase these points once more this week.

A.J. Kramer, who has headed the general public defender’s workplace in Washington for 30 years, mentioned he assigned circumstances to the attorneys. He mentioned he gave Jackson a number of of the Guantanamo circumstances due to her stellar authorized background.

“After I checked out her resume, I believed she must be interviewing me, quite than me interviewing her,” he mentioned.

The Bush administration had insisted the prisoners held at Guantanamo had no rights, however the Supreme Court docket disagreed and mentioned they could file appeals to federal judges. Besides, the regulation was unclear and in flux.

On Monday, the 22 senators on the Judiciary Committee will take turns delivering opening statements after which introduce Jackson to ship her remarks.

The committee will then adjourn and start questioning her Tuesday morning and proceed via Wednesday. Thursday will probably be dedicated to testimony from exterior witnesses.

In recent times, Senate hearings for Supreme Court docket nominees have change into fiercely partisan. All of the committee’s Democrats opposed President Trump’s three nominees, and at occasions, walked out of the room in protest.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, confirmed in October 2020, was the primary profitable nominee in 150 years to win approval with out a single vote from the opposition social gathering.

The committee has not mentioned when it would vote on Jackson’s nomination.

If it divides completely alongside partisan strains, Senate Majority Chief Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) can introduce a movement to have her nomination despatched to the Senate ground.