WASHINGTON — History was made Monday the instant Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court.
History is made"Today is a proud day for America," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the committee chairman, as he opened the historic hearing. Senators on the Republican side are criticizing Jackson's record as too soft on crime, much the way Southern senators in 1967 linked race and crime at a time of riots in cities nationwide when Thurgood Marshall, the storied civil rights lawyer, was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to be the first Black justice.
Yet, senators on the Republican side kept referencing the Kavanaugh hearings, which blew up as Democrats brought forward the assault allegations and his own blustery defense of beer-drinking and high school."No one is going to inquire into your teenage dating habits," he said."No one is going to ask you with mock severity 'Do you like beer?'"
It's not about race, until it is Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said during opening remarks that while he believes"the court should look like America," he also signaled he won't shy from asking hard questions of the nominee.But the imagery is stark the all-white Republican side of the aisle, as the mostly male senators question and criticize the Jackson's record, and demand a fuller accounting of her judicial philosophy.
Potential presidential hopeful Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., set the tone even before the hearings began, raising concerns that Jackson gave child pornography defendants lighter sentences than required.