Post by Admin on Mar 22, 2022 20:47:00 GMT
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson began her second day of Supreme Court nomination hearings by defending herself against Republican accusations she had been too lenient when sentencing child porn offenders.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., used the first round of questioning Tuesday morning to let Jackson rebut the charges, which senators had mentioned in Monday’s opening session of the hearings. Two of the committee’s members — Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. — referred to cases where Jackson issued sentences on child porn offenders in her time as a federal judge, while Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., encouraged his colleagues to pursue that line of questioning.
Jackson, who if confirmed would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, was able to respond to the accusations for the first time on Tuesday.
"As a mother and a judge who has had to deal with these cases, I was thinking that nothing could be further from the truth,” she said when asked what was going through her head when she heard the accusations.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies on her nomination to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
“These are some of the most difficult cases judges have to deal with, because we’re talking about pictures of sex abuse of children. We’re talking about graphic descriptions that judges have to read and consider when they decide how to sentence in these cases, and there’s a statute that tells judges what they’re supposed to do."
Durbin had attempted to preempt the attack in his opening statement Monday, citing an article in the conservative magazine National Review that called the allegation against Jackson “meritless to the point of demagoguery.”
Jackson detailed how she was affected by the stories of young abuse victims who had told her they couldn’t maintain normal relationships as adults, turned to drugs and could not leave their homes because of the trauma.
“In every case when I am dealing with something like this, it is important to me to make sure that the children’s perspective, the children’s voices, are represented in my sentencings,” she said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., used the first round of questioning Tuesday morning to let Jackson rebut the charges, which senators had mentioned in Monday’s opening session of the hearings. Two of the committee’s members — Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. — referred to cases where Jackson issued sentences on child porn offenders in her time as a federal judge, while Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., encouraged his colleagues to pursue that line of questioning.
Jackson, who if confirmed would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, was able to respond to the accusations for the first time on Tuesday.
"As a mother and a judge who has had to deal with these cases, I was thinking that nothing could be further from the truth,” she said when asked what was going through her head when she heard the accusations.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies on her nomination to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
“These are some of the most difficult cases judges have to deal with, because we’re talking about pictures of sex abuse of children. We’re talking about graphic descriptions that judges have to read and consider when they decide how to sentence in these cases, and there’s a statute that tells judges what they’re supposed to do."
Durbin had attempted to preempt the attack in his opening statement Monday, citing an article in the conservative magazine National Review that called the allegation against Jackson “meritless to the point of demagoguery.”
Jackson detailed how she was affected by the stories of young abuse victims who had told her they couldn’t maintain normal relationships as adults, turned to drugs and could not leave their homes because of the trauma.
“In every case when I am dealing with something like this, it is important to me to make sure that the children’s perspective, the children’s voices, are represented in my sentencings,” she said.