On Thursday, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to serve as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by a vote of 53-47. She will replace Justice Stephen Breyer and be the first Black woman to serve on the Court.

Earlier today, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court received a tie vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. No Republicans voted in favor of the nomination.

News -- In a party-line vote, Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocks 11-11 on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to SCOTUS.

Next up: A vote tonight to discharge the nomination by full Senate. Simple majority is needed
Cloture vote: Thursday
Confirmation: Thursday or Friday

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 4, 2022

RNLA’s National Policy Conference is in one week and we thought we would highlight four of the speakers' views on the just-completed Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.  But as Senator Tom Cotton, who will be awarded the Ed Meese Award at the conference, points out:

The media's cheerleading for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation, despite her soft-on-crime record, goes beyond bias—it's propaganda.

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) March 24, 2022

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. Join RNLA this Friday at 2:00 p.m. ET for a webinar recapping the week of hearings featuring the Article III Project's Mike Davis and the Ethics and Public Policy Center's Ed Whelan. Register on Zoom here!

On Wednesday, Americans across the country tuned in to day three of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. While many of the same topics previously discussed were raised again, there were some clear takeaways from the 10+ hours of discussion between the Committee and Judge Jackson.

In 17 years of closely watching Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson had the worst second day performance of anyone I have watched when she contradicted herself multiple times during questioning. It also became clear that she is soft on crime, not in some sort of abstract way, but she is overly sympathetic to criminals to the detriment of victims. 

1. Judge Jackson stated: “There were no victims” regarding the sentencing of a fentanyl and heroin drug kingpin. While Judge Jackson did add later that were no victims available to testify, as Senator Cotton pointed out, there are definitely victims of a drug kingpin. However, Judge Jackson still twisted a compassionate release statue to reduce the sentence of this drug kingpin.

Asked if she reached out to any of the victims of a heroin trafficker, Ketanji Brown Jackson dismisses the question by saying “there were no victims” pic.twitter.com/FU0SOCLZRX

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 22, 2022

On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up the first day of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. From the start of the hearing, it became clear that the atmosphere of the hearings would be night and day from the hearings for former President Trump's nominees to the Court (Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch). Ranking Member Chuck Grassley explained during his opening statement:

We will conduct a thorough, exhaustive examination of Judge Jackson’s record and views. We won’t try to turn this into a spectacle based on alleged process fouls. On that front, we’re off to a good start. Unlike the start to the Kavanaugh hearings, we didn’t have repeated, choreographed interruptions of Chairman Durbin during his opening statement like Democrats interrupted me for more than an hour during my opening statement at the Kavanaugh hearing.

RNLA sent the following letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley regarding the record of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson:

Dear Chairman Durbin and Ranking Member Grassley, 

The Republican National Lawyers Association (“RNLA”) urges you to seek answers from Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the following questions during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Receiving answers to these questions from Judge Jackson is especially important due to the compressed timeline of this nomination, which does not allow for sufficient factfinding in these matters. 

Since the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, we've heard about the extensive support she has received from leftist "dark money" groups like Demand Justice. But where did this support originate? Earlier today, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell explained how a "politically charged" opinion she issued while serving as a District Court judge seems to have boosted her profile with the "dark money" Left:

“Before the 2020 election, one far-left dark-money group put Judge Jackson on their Supreme Court shortlist.

“Well, not at first. She was left off their first version. But shortly thereafter, the Judge published a fiery 118-page opinion in a politically-charged case that won attention and praise from liberal pundits.

Republicans have questions about Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's involvement in providing representation for terrorism suspects being held at the Guantánamo Bay military prison. As The Washington Free Beacon reported in February, Judge Jackson was involved in the litigation while working as a federal public defender and after she moved to private practice:

Jackson has portrayed her work for the detainees as that of a disinterested professional fulfilling an assignment. But a Washington Free Beacon review of court filings dating back to 2005 indicates that Jackson was deeply committed to equal treatment for accused terrorists. Her advocacy was zealous and often resembled ideological cause lawyering, even in her capacity as a public defender. At times, she flirted with unsubstantiated left-wing theories that were debunked by government investigators. On other occasions, she accused Justice Department lawyers of egregious misconduct with little evidence.