Washington – The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin four days of hearings to study the appointment of a judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in the Supreme Court on Monday, March 21, committee chairman Richard Durbin said Wednesday.
Jackson, 51, is currently serving as a judge in the federal court of appeals in Washington, DC. selected by President Biden to replace outgoing Supreme Court Judge Stephen Breyer last week. She would be the first black woman Supreme Court judge in U.S. history if confirmed.
“As I said from the moment Judge Breyer announced his retirement, the Committee is taking a fair and timely process to consider Judge Jackson’s nomination,” Durbin wrote in a letter to his colleagues. “I look forward to Judge Jackson’s appearance before the Committee and to respectful and dignified hearings.”
Durbin said the first day of hearings will feature opening statements from members of the Judiciary Committee, a presentation by Jackson, and a statement from Jackson herself. The next two days will be reserved for the interrogation of committee members, and outside witnesses will testify on the fourth and final day of the hearings.
Democrats control the Senate in equal parts and hope to act quickly to confirm Jackson in the upper court. A simple majority is needed to confirm Supreme Court justices in the Senate, thanks to a change in House rules in 2017. Jackson began meeting with lawmakers on the Capitol on Wednesday, including the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and minority leader Mitch McConnell.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Jackson is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School, and worked for Breyer in 1999. She has worked in private law firms and as a public defender, and was a member of the United States Sentencing Commission. . She was a federal district judge in Washington for eight years before being appointed to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2021 to replace Merrick Garland, who resigned as a prosecutor. general.
Three Republican senators voted to confirm Jackson to the DC Circuit last year: Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Graham, who was previously chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he expected a “respectful but interesting hearing” when his nomination was announced.
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