Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., questioned Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the Judiciary Committee continued its Supreme Court confirmation hearings on March 22.
Whitehouse kicked off his time to speak by reading a series of comments by Jackson’s former boss, Judge Bruce Selya, who serves on the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
“She is absolutely everything you would want in a Supreme Court justice,” Sheldon read from an article in the Boston Globe. “She has all the tickets in terms of her intelligence, her education, her work experience and her demonstrated judicial temperament.”
“I am so flattered by his admiration, because he is someone that I have admired my entire professional life,” Jackson said to Whitehouse.
The senator from Rhode Island then addressed what he called “dark money” in Supreme Court nominations, which he noted “bears not at all on this nominee.”
He then asked Jackson about the civil jury, which he said has been key to our judicial system since Colonial times.
Jackson agreed that “it is part of our ordered liberty. It is a mechanism by which citizens can participate in governance.”
Jackson was nominated by President Joe Biden in February to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. If confirmed, she will be the first Black woman on the high court. After opening statements from Jackson, her colleagues and the senators March 21, senators will spend two days questioning Jackson at length about her rulings and judicial philosophy. On the final day of the hearings March 24, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear from friends and colleagues of Jackson about her temperament and approach to the law.
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