Lindsey Graham Tells Supreme Court Nominee ‘You’re Doing It Wrong’

Topline

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and a string of Republican senators criticized Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during the third day of her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, questioning her record as a trial court judge despite Graham previously supporting her appointment to a federal appeals court.

Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies during her confirmation hearing before … [+] the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 23.

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Key Facts

Graham, one of only three senators to support Jackson’s 2021 confirmation to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, went more than 15 minutes over his allotted 20-minute timeslot for questioning Jackson, justifying it by claiming she had “filibustered every question” he had asked.

Graham first demanded Jackson respond to Democrats’ treatment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 confirmation hearing, to which she had no comment.

Graham then turned to Jackson’s record of child pornography sentences and accused her in a heated exchange of “doing it wrong” by being too lenient—to which the judge said she was “trying to be rational in dealing with some of the most horrible kinds of behavior” and “know[s]

how serious this crime is.”

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have accused Jackson during the hearings of not imposing harsh enough sentences for child-pornography offenders—a line of attack that legal experts have widely condemned, saying her sentences are in line with other federal judges nationwide, including conservative-leaning ones.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also went over his time thanks to a testy line of questioning about Jackson’s child pornography sentences, insisting she respond to his questions after his time had expired—to which Senate Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told Cruz, “At some point, you have to follow the rules,” ending his questioning.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who first leveled accusations about Jackson’s child pornography cases, told Jackson he “fundamentally disagree[s]” with her rulings in those cases and asked her about her decisions—at which point Jackson told Hawley she would “stand on what I’ve already said” after repeatedly addressing the issue throughout her two days of Senate questioning, rather than rehashing the issue.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) accused Jackson of having a level of “empathy” for those she sentenced that he claimed goes “beyond what some of us might be comfortable with,” but Jackson responded that her “attempts to communicate directly with defendants is about public safety” and ensuring they will rehabilitate themselves and will not commit crimes again when out of prison.

Crucial Quote

In response to Hawley asking Wednesday whether Jackson regretted her sentence in a child pornography case, she responded, “What I regret is that in a hearing about my qualifications to be a justice on the Supreme Court, we have spent a lot of time focusing on this small subset of my sentences.”

Tangent

Under questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Jackson said she would recuse herself from hearing an upcoming Supreme Court case challenging Harvard University’s affirmative action policy if she’s confirmed. Jackson attended Harvard Law School and serves on its Board of Overseers. Justice Clarence Thomas has also faced calls to recuse himself from the case, as a group his wife is involved with filed a brief with the court supporting the challenge.

Big Number

58%. That’s the percentage of U.S. adults that want Jackson to be confirmed, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday—the highest share of any recent Supreme Court nominee except for Chief Justice John Roberts (whose confirmation had 59% approval in 2005).

Key Background

Jackson, a federal appeals judge on the D.C. Circuit Court, will be the first Black woman appointed to the Supreme Court if confirmed, and is being considered to fill the seat vacated by Justice Stephen Breyer when he retires this summer. She will not change the court’s ideological balance and Republicans had promised a “respectful” confirmation, but GOP opposition against Jackson has ramped up during the Senate hearings, as senators have gone after her for her sentencing of child-pornography offenders, representation of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and purported support for “critical race theory,” among other partisan topics. Jackson’s handling of child-pornography cases has been widely supported by federal sentencing experts, retired federal judges and other legal experts, as well as even some conservative commentators.

What To Watch For

Senators’ questioning of Jackson ends with Wednesday’s hearing, but the Senate hearing will continue Thursday with testimony from outside witnesses in support of and against her confirmation. The full Senate will then vote, with only a simple majority needed for Jackson to be confirmed. Jackson is widely expected to be confirmed even with Republican senators’ opposition to her, as she only needs support from all 50 Democratic senators and Vice President Kamala Harris. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told NBC News Tuesday he believes Jackson’s confirmation will go through, saying he “think[s] she’s done pretty well” even as he leaned toward voting against her himself.