Highlights from Senate vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sat down at the gallery behind Judge Jackson on Wednesday afternoon to witness Biden's nominee in action.

Welcoming him to the room, Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said that Schumer "would report, if he could, that we have a challenge to finish our hearing today at a time when we can go to the floor for a series of votes which will end the day" -- in a sign the hearings were entering the homestretch.

In earlier floor remarks, Schumer praised Jackson for what he called a "master class" before the Senate Judiciary Committee and said he expects her to "reach final confirmation" before the end of the work period, which would keep Democrats on track to meet their goal of confirmation before Easter.

"At times the judge also displayed one of her greatest traits: her grace and poise, even when Republicans asked intentionally misleading questions," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "Republicans tried to land a blow but judge Jackson kept her cool."

Inside the hearing room, Jackson's family was also seated behind her, as they've been in the proceedings days, to support her through the confirmation process. Her husband, Patrick, a general surgeon, was again spotted taking copious notes and donning John F. Kennedy-themed socks, after sporting a Benjamin Franklin-themed pair Tuesday.

-ABC News' Trish Turner and Allison Pecorin

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, tried to draw Judge Jackson into a discussion that appeared aimed at whether the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide could be overturned by the Supreme Court, to which Jackson avoided by noting it's a question currently before the court involving another case.

"What does viability mean when it comes to an unborn child in your understanding?" he asked.

"Senator, I hesitate to speculate. I know that it is a point in time that the court has identified in terms of when -- the standards that apply to regulation of the right," she said.

"No one suggests that a 20-week-old fetus can live independently outside the mother’s womb, do they?" Cornyn asked.

"Senator, I’m not a biologist," she replied.

"What I know is that the Supreme Court has tests and standards that it's applied when it evaluates regulation of the right of a woman to terminate their pregnancy," she said. "The court has announced that there is a right to terminate, up to the point of viability, subject to the framework of Roe, and there is a pending case that is addressing these issues."

Cornyn went on to have her confirm that the Constitution does not mention the words "abortion" or "marriage," after taking issue with the court’s decision on same-sex marriage on Tuesday.

Questioned also about the decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which ruled the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep a gun in the home, Jackson resisted ranking the precedent with that of Roe v. Wade, as Cornyn asked her to do, and said that all Supreme Court precedents are entitled to respect on an equal basis.

-ABC News' Trish Turner

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., assailed Judge Jackson over her sentencing of those child pornography defendants and alleged that she fell below the federal recommendation in some cases "because she doesn't use the enhancements available to her."

"Folks, what she is saying, the reason she's always below the recommendation, I think, is because she doesn't use the enhancements available to her. She takes them off the table. And I think that's a big mistake, judge. I think that every federal judge out there should make it harder for somebody to go on a computer and view this filth," Graham told her.

The government's aforementioned sentencing guidelines, created before the internet was widely available, call for an enhancement on child porn offenses based on the number of images sent by mail were involved, meaning anyone who now is committing the crime online with ability to access or send many more images now gets an automatic stiffer punishment.

Jackson argued that's unfair for those who use the mail because they get shorter sentences and would mean those who use a computer, even first time offenders, get longer sentences.

"Senator, all I'm trying to explain is that our sentencing system, the system that Congress has created, the system that the sentencing commission is the steward of, is a rational one. It's a system that is designed to help judges do justice in these terrible circumstances by eliminating unwarranted disparities, by ensuring that the most serious defendants get the longest periods of time in prison," she said. "What we are trying to do is be rational in our dealing with some of the most horrible kinds of behavior."

Graham wouldn't see her side and said he thinks Jackson sentences lower whenever a computer is involved.

"All I can say is, your view of how to deter child pornography is not my view. I think you are doing it wrong and every judge who does what you are doing is making it easier for the children to be exploited," he said.

After their lengthy exchange, Senate Judiciary Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who had to interrupt Graham several times to allow Jackson to finish, said the onus was on Congress to upgrade the sentencing guidelines, to which Graham agreed.

Notably, the sentences Graham is now taking issue with were on Jackson's record when he voted last year to confirm her to the nation's second-highest court.

-ABC News' Trish Turner

After airing his grievances over treatment of a different African American judicial nominee for a different post, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., began his questioning Wednesday by firing off a barrage of policy questions and asking Judge Jackson whether she agreed with them.

His first question to the nominee: "Do you believe illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote, Judge Jackson?"

"Under our laws, you have to be a citizen of the United States in order to vote," she replied.

"So the answer would be no?" he asked.

"It's not consistent with our laws, so the answer is no," she said.

"Okay," Graham quipped. "Why don't they do that in New York?"

"Senator, I'm not aware of the circumstances," she said.

"Okay, all right, well that's a good answer. The answer is no," he said. "Can an unborn child feel pain at 20 weeks in the birthing process?

"Senator, I don't know," she said.

Graham asked another question on abortion, which she also said she didn't know, before Graham added, "That may come before you one day, so just keep an open mind."