US Senate opens hearing on 1st Black woman for Supreme Court

The US Senate began confirmation hearings on Monday for the historic nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.   

If confirmed, she would become the first Black woman to serve on the highest court of the United States.

President Joe Biden, who picked Jackson for a seat on the court, tweeted ahead of the hearing that she is a "brilliant legal mind with the utmost character and integrity."

"She deserves to be confirmed as the next Justice of the Supreme Court," he added.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, in his opening address, said: "I... ask the members of this committee as we begin this landmark confirmation process, to consider how history will judge each senator, as we face our constitutional responsibility to advise and consent."

Jackson makes her case

In her opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jackson vowed to defend the US Constitution and decide cases "without fear or favor" if her nomination is confirmed. 

"I have been a judge for nearly a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously," she said.  

"I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath," she added.

Noting that her parents grew up in the era of racial segregation, Jackson said, "My parents taught me that, unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, such that if I worked hard and believed in myself, in America I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be."

Jackson has been nominated to replace 83-year-old Stephen Breyer, a liberal justice who is retiring after serving more than two decades on the court.

His retirement gave Biden his first opportunity to name a new justice to the top court. During the 2020 campaign, he pledged to name a Black woman if he got the chance. 

No change to Supreme Court's conservative majority

Jackson, a 51-year-old former federal public defender with almost a decade of experience on lower courts, served as a law clerk to Breyer.

In addition, Jackson served on the US Sentencing Commission, an independent agency created by Congress to reduce disparity in federal prison sentences.

Her testimony will give most Americans, as well as the Senate, their most extensive look yet at the Harvard-trained lawyer, whose two-year stint as a federal public defender makes her the first nominee with significant criminal defense experience since Thurgood Marshall, the first Black American to serve on the nation's highest court.

Jackson's confirmation would not change the Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority.

But some Republicans have signaled that they intend to go after her record as a public defender, her work defending Guantanamo Bay detainees and her tenure on the US Sentencing Commission.

Under the US Constitution, the Senate has the authority to confirm a president's judicial appointments.

Biden's fellow Democrats narrowly control the Senate, so no major obstacles are expected for Jackson's confirmation. 

Support across the spectrum

Her nomination has been backed by prominent lawyers from across the ideological spectrum, civil rights groups and law enforcement organizations.

The confirmation hearing ends on Thursday with witnesses testifying about Jackson's suitability for the job.

The Judiciary Committee would then vote on the nomination in the coming weeks, followed by a final confirmation vote on the Senate floor.

She would be the first nominee of a Democratic president to be confirmed to the Supreme Court since Elena Kagan in 2010.

In addition to being the first Black woman on the court, Jackson would be the third Black justice, after Marshall and his successor, Justice Clarence Thomas.

She  would also become the sixth woman to serve on the top court, which currently has three female justices: Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

sri/rt (AP, AFP, Reuters)