Highlights from Senate vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., gaveled in the hearings at 11:02 a.m. -- marking the first time in 233 years that the Senate will consider the nomination of a Black woman to the Supreme Court.

"The rule of law has stood the test of time, but the reality is that the court's members have never really reflected the nation they served,'' Durbin said.

"Today is a proud day for America," he continued, noting he saw many young African American women on the steps of the Supreme Court at a rally for Jackson's confirmation earlier this morning.

Durbin also had a preemptive message for Republicans on the committee like Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who are expected to attack Jackson's credibility, noting that she's been vetted three times by the Senate and confirmed.

"Despite your record, we've heard claims that you're, quote, soft on crime. These baseless charges are unfair," he said.

"You, Judge Jackson, are one of Mr. Lincoln's living witnesses of an America that is unafraid of challenge, willing to risk change, confident of the basic goodness of our citizens -- and you are living witness to the fact that in America all is possible."

Confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson -- Biden’s first nominee to the Supreme Court -- are officially underway. Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., gaveled them in just after 11 a.m.

To begin, the committee’s 22 members will each have 10 minutes each for opening statements ahead of two introducers to Jackson and an opening statement from Jackson herself.

If confirmed, Jackson would become the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court.

A Monmouth University Poll released this morning found a majority of Americans (55%) say Jackson should be confirmed as an associate justice on the Supreme Court. Only 21% say she should not be confirmed, and 24% offered no opinion.

Jackson’s husband, Patrick, two daughters, Talia and Lelia, and her parents, Johnny Brown and Ellery Brown, are all in attendance for the historic event.

In a sign of pandemic restrictions easing across the country and in Washington, almost no one in the hearing room was wearing a mask.

Judge Jackson arrived on Capitol Hill before 10:30 a.m. on Monday to begin a marathon week of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will need to approve her nomination to the Supreme Court before it sees a full floor vote.

Asked by reporters how she’s feeling this morning, Jackson said, "Very good – thank you,” and headed down the halls toward the hearing room.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will gavel in at 11 a.m. with 10-minute statements from the committee's 11 Republican and 11 Democratic members in order of seniority. Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, will kick off the hearings.

Following member opening statements, Judge Thomas Griffith, formerly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and professor Lisa Fairfax of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School will have five minutes each to introduce Jackson. Both know Jackson personally.

Griffith often reviewed Jackson’s decisions as a trial judge while he served on the Court of Appeals and wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee last month in support of Jackson's confirmation. Fairfax and Jackson were roommates for most of college and law school at Harvard University.

Finally, Jackson will deliver her 10-minute opening statement to close the day, which will air on the ABC News broadcast network with special coverage.

Judge Jackson recounted in a 2017 speech that her parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, wanting to show pride in their African ancestry, asked her aunt, who was then in the Peace Corps in West Africa, for a list of African girl names.

Taking one of her suggestions, Jackson's parents named her Ketanji Onyika, which translates to "lovely one."

Jackson's parents grew up in South Florida under segregation, "but never gave up hope that their children would enjoy the true promise of America,” Biden said at a White House event last month introducing Jackson.

Biden said Jackson was a "star student" who fell in love with a law career while watching her own father going to law school at the University of Miami, often drawing on coloring books at the dining room table next to her father's homework. Jackson went on to attend Harvard Law School herself, despite some cautioning her against setting her sights too high.

“My life has been blessed beyond measure and I do know that one can only come this far by faith,” Jackson said at the White House. “Among my many blessings, the very first is the fact that I was born in this great country. The United States of America is the greatest beacon of hope and democracy the world has ever known.”

She married Patrick Jackson, a general surgeon, in 1996, and the couple has two daughters, Talia, 21, and Leila, 17.