(New York) The United States had never seen such a scene: standing in front of members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, her right hand raised, a black woman vowed to tell “the whole truth” on Monday afternoon , on the first day of consideration of his candidacy for the Supreme Court.
Updated yesterday at 6:10 p.m.
If Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed by the full Senate, she will become, at age 51, the first African-American to sit on America’s highest court. But before arriving at this vote, she will have to answer questions from senators from both parties on Tuesday and Wednesday, a step fraught with pitfalls of which she had a first glimpse on Monday.
During her opening statement, she also wanted to answer in advance the questions of Republican senators who questioned her judicial independence. She, however, postponed responding to questions about her alleged complacency towards paedophiles.
“I have been a judge for almost a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty of independence very seriously,” Judge Jackson said, after being introduced to commission members in glowing terms by a federal judge at the retirement appointed by a Republican president and a former colleague from Harvard University, where she studied.
PHOTO MANDEL NGAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thomas Griffith, ex-federal judge, and Lisa Fairfax, former Harvard colleague of judge Jackson, introducing him to the members of the commission. On the right, she wipes her tears, visibly moved.
“I decide cases from a neutral position. I assess the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favour, in accordance with my judicial oath, “added the one who is called to succeed Judge Stephen Breyer, a replacement that will not change the conservative majority of the Supreme Court, made up of six out of nine justices.
Prior to Judge Jackson’s presentation and statement, each of the 22 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee was given 10 minutes to speak and give an idea of how they will question the judge.
108 out of 115 white men
From the outset, the chairman of the commission, Richard Durbin, underlined in broad strokes the historic dimension of the appointment of Justice Jackson by Joe Biden, who had promised to call on a black woman to fill the first vacancy in the Supreme Court.
PHOTO JONATHAN ERNST, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Ketanji Brown Jackson and Richard Durbin, during a meeting earlier this month
“No justice has been a black woman,” he said, noting that 108 of the Supreme Court’s 115 justices have been white men.
You, Judge Jackson, can be the first. It’s not easy to be the first. But your presence here today, your willingness to brave this process, will be an inspiration to millions of Americans who identify with you.
Richard Durbin, Chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee
No Republican senator has questioned the qualifications of Judge Jackson, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2013. But several have signaled they would try to paint her as complacent about the law. towards criminals, including terrorists and paedophiles.
“You have used your time and talent not to serve our nation’s veterans or other vulnerable groups, but to provide free legal services to help terrorists get out of Gitmo [camp de Guantánamo] and get back to fighting,” said Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, alluding to Ketanji Brown Jackson’s time representing Guantánamo detainees as a legal aid attorney.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri, for his part, mentioned seven cases where Judge Jackson had not, according to him, imposed on people convicted of child pornography cases sentences as severe as those demanded by federal prosecutors.
In a tweet published last week, he notably denounced a “disturbing trend on the part of Judge Jackson when it comes to the treatment of sex offenders, in particular those who attack children”.
“Unsubstantiated” allegations
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, who opposes Judge Jackson’s confirmation on other grounds, condemned Senator Hawley’s charges, criticizing him in particular for failing to distinguish between possession and production of child pornography.
“The allegations seem baseless, even demagoguery,” he opined in a column published on the conservative magazine’s website. National Review.
Democratic Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy for his part defended Ketanji Brown Jackson’s work as a legal aid attorney, a role no Supreme Court justice has ever played.
“I am proud to be a former prosecutor. But confidence in my pursuit of a case was strongest when I knew the defendant had the best possible representation,” he said.
If the 50 senators of the Democratic group vote in favor of confirming Justice Jackson, she will not need a single Republican vote to reach the Supreme Court. The vote of Vice President Kamala Harris will then make the difference.
In June 2021, Judge Jackson had received the support of three Republican senators during her confirmation to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. One of them, Lindsey Graham, however indicated on Monday that his support was no longer certain. “It’s a new game,” he said.
Like some of his Republican colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Graham assured Judge Jackson that she would not face treatment similar to that inflicted in 2018 on Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He had been accused, during the examination of his candidacy for the Supreme Court, of sexual assault when he was a teenager fond of beer.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz made the same promise to Judge Jackson: “No one is going to investigate your teenage dating habits. Nobody will ask you, with mocking severity: “Do you like beer?” »