WASHINGTON – Over the course of four days of controversial hearings by Supreme Court nominee Justice Kitangi Brown-Jackson, the Senate has highlighted the culture war messages of Republicans and the high aspirations of the new conservative 6-3 majority on the bench.
Democrats accused some GOP senators of pursuing deceptive photos of the historic candidate, who would be the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, even suggesting that some were scamming radicals online.
The Judiciary Committee is due to vote on the nomination on April 4, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is hoping to hold a vote in the full Senate later that week. Fifty votes are required to confirm it, and Democrats seem confident that it will be a bipartisan vote.
Here are some points learned from long and strained hearing.
Culture Wars and the Republican Party’s “Political Messages”
The sessions turned into a forum for culture wars and would-be presidential hopefuls to test their campaign messages — most notably Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
Regardless of Jackson’s judicial philosophy and record, Republicans have used the time of their questioning to press a series of cultural hot buttons that are central to the GOP’s political messaging, but largely unrelated to the job for which he competed — including illegal immigration, border politics and athletes. Transgender, progressive calls to add seats to the Supreme Court and critical race theory.
Jackson has said several times that critical race theory, an academic framework that sees racism through a structural lens, has nothing to do with her work as a judge.
At one point, Cotton asked her if the United States should have had more police officers, and whether the country would be better off if all the Guantanamo detainees were released.
Greg Nunziata, the former top nominee adviser for Senate Judiciary Republicans, said there were “legitimate areas of investigation” but criticized some of the insinuations from GOP senators as “unfair” and “onerous.”
He said he saw “a lot of political messaging,” particularly quoting Republican members of committees with higher aspirations. “It is interesting to note how senators with presidential ambitions seem to approach sessions differently than their colleagues,” he said.
Hearing turns ugly
Republicans promised a thoughtful and respectful hearing. The Democrats say they haven’t succeeded.
“Some of the attacks on this judge have been unfair, relentless, and disgraceful to the United States Senate,” Senate Judiciary Chief Dick Durbin, a Democrat, said Thursday, while allowing a “majority” of Republicans to act professionally. .
The questioning began on a friendly note, but was derailed when Senator Lindsey Graham took the microphone and directed criticism at Jackson about how Democrats handled former conservative judicial candidates. On Wednesday, Graham picked up where he left off on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Cruz instigated one of the most awkward and heated dialogues, raising his voice and demanding answers that Jackson said she had already given, interrupting Durbin because he signaled his time was up.
At another point, when Cruz sought his admission, Senator Patrick Leahy scolded him: “I know the younger senator from Texas loves to be on TV, but most of us have been here a long time, trying to follow the rules.”
Democrats have also been frustrated by intense Republican questioning of her record in child abuse cases, viewing the criticism as fundamentally flimsy and made in bad faith to damage Jackson’s image. Advisers to President Joe Biden cited fact-finding (including from conservatives) that found Jackson’s sentencing practices to be within the judicial mainstream. Durbin found himself working as a fact-checker between some interrogations.
“QAnon Elementary”
The White House has accused Hawley of leading the far-right conspiracy group QAnon by inciting misleading depictions of Jackson’s sentencing record in child pornography cases.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates called him “Josh Hawley (Kenon)” and accused him of promoting “the defamation of QAnon.”
When asked by NBC News Thursday for the response, Hawley laughed and said, “Yes, I’m also a member of the Illuminati.”
He called the White House criticism “illogical” and said he wanted to see Biden “demonstrate some concern” about the millions of images of children being exploited on the Internet.
Democrats criticized the behavior of Hawley and other Republicans who followed similar lines of attack.
“The US Senate Judiciary Committee should not be used to launder distortions that come from an online sect,” said Senator Brian Schatz, US Senator from Hawaii. “It’s a very terrifying cult on the Internet. The most ambitious presidential candidates want to win the QAnon primaries.”
Another conspiracy theory surfaced at the hearing: Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who was called by Republicans to testify Thursday in opposition to Jackson, refused four times to say whether Biden was duly elected president in the 2020 election.
Democrats are confident
Schatz, a member of the Democratic leadership, said Jackson was still in good shape until confirmed.
“I feel very confident. I feel very good,” he said. “I think she did a very good job. I thought our members did a good job.”
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are firmly in Jackson’s corner and anticipate that will be the case when she heads to a vote in the full Senate in the coming weeks.
“The Senate is on its way to confirm that Judge Jackson is Judge Jackson at the end of this term of office,” Schumer said Thursday. “Judge Jackson has erased any doubt that she is wonderful, that she is lovable, and that she belongs – no doubt – to the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Some expect to win the Republican vote, too.
“There is no reason why it shouldn’t be confirmed with significant bipartisan support,” said Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California.
The Republican Party raises its ambitions for a 6-3 court
Using unusual tactics over the past six years, Republicans have built the most conservative Supreme Court in nearly a century, and this week they provided a glimpse into their next goals.
It’s not just Roe v. Wade and abortion rights that conservatives hope the Supreme Court will flip from 6 to 3 (a balance that won’t change if Jackson is confirmed) this year.
Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, lobbied Jackson over “unlisted rights” not explicitly included in the Constitution, citing the right to same-sex marriage found by the Supreme Court in the 2015 case Obergefell v. Hodges.
While the Liberals have warned judges not to tread carefully in a long-running precedent, Cornyn said the court should not feel ashamed of doing so. “Thank God, the Supreme Court is willing to reconsider its precedent or we’ll still live with Plessy v. Ferguson,” he said, referring to the 1896 ruling that allowed segregation.
Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, targeted the 1965 ruling, Griswold v. Connecticut, in which the Supreme Court found that contraceptives cannot be decriminalized.
Democrats were annoyed.
“There appears to be an effort to roll back rights in a variety of areas — reproductive rights or voting rights, to name just two,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a committee member.
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