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Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney say they will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s “historic nomination” to the Supreme Court, bolstering bipartisan support for the first Black woman to be nominated for the court.
The senators from Alaska and Utah announced their decisions Monday evening ahead of a procedural Senate vote to advance the nomination. They join Sen. Susan Collins of Maine as Republicans who say they will support Jackson.
Jackson, a federal appellate court judge, was nominated by President Joe Biden to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
Murkowksi said her decision to support Jackson’s confirmation “also rests on my rejection of the corrosive politicization” of the Senate’s process for Supreme Court nominees, which she said is growing worse and more detached from reality by the year.”
She said, “While I have not and will not agree with all of Judge Jackson’s decisions and opinions, her approach to cases is carefully considered and is generally well-reasoned.”
Read: Who is Ketanji Brown Jackson? 6 things to know about Biden’s Supreme Court nominee
After more than 30 hours of hearings and interrogation from Republicans over her record, Jackson is on the brink of making history as the third Black justice and only the sixth woman in the court’s more than 200-year history. Democrats cite her deep experience in her nine years on the federal bench and the chance for her to become the first former public defender on the court.
“Judge Jackson will bring extraordinary qualifications, deep experience and intellect, and a rigorous judicial record to the Supreme Court,” Biden tweeted Monday. “She deserves to be confirmed as the next justice.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday deadlocked over Judge Jackson’s nomination, but she is expected to get confirmed by the full Senate in a close vote later this week.
All 11 of the panel’s Democratic members supported her and all 11 Republicans opposed her.
The committee’s top Republican, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, said he was opposing Jackson’s nomination because “she and I have fundamental, different views on the role of judges and the role that they should play in our system of government.”
The committee hadn’t deadlocked since 1991, when Biden was chairman and a motion to send the nomination of current Justice Clarence Thomas to the floor with a “favorable” recommendation failed on a 7-7 vote. The committee then voted to send the nomination to the floor without a recommendation, meaning it could still be brought up for a vote.
Republicans on the Judiciary panel continued their push Monday to paint Jackson as soft on crime, defending their repeated questions about her sentencing on sex crimes.
“Questions are not attacks,” said Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, one of several GOP senators on the panel who hammered the point in the hearings two weeks ago.
Jackson pushed back on the GOP narrative, declaring that “nothing could be further from the truth.” Democrats said she was in line with other judges in her decisions. And on Monday they criticized their GOP counterparts’ questioning.
The nomination of Jackson still should proceed to the full Senate for a vote, because, following a deadlock for a committee, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, can file what’s known as a discharge petition to get her nomination on the calendar.
One notable moderate Democrat, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, hasn’t yet said how she will vote.
MarketWatch contributed.
