Highlights from Senate vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson

The Senate voted 53-47 in a bipartisan vote on Jackson's nomination.

Last Updated: April 7, 2022, 5:29 PM EDT

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in its 233-year history, was confirmed by the Senate in a 53-47 vote Thursday.

She got three Republican votes, marking a bipartisan victory for President Joe Biden and his high court nominee.

Mar 24, 2022, 1:13 PM EDT

Hearings adjourn, Jackson on track for full Senate vote before Easter

The Senate Judiciary Committee has adjourned after four days of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson, Biden’s first high court nominee and the first Black woman in history considered for the position by the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed earlier Thursday that her nomination is still on track for final consideration in the Senate before Easter.

"Once the committee concludes its work, I will move to have her nomination come to the floor in short order,” Schumer said. "There is not a shred of doubt in my mind she merits confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

While the White House had hoped the hearings would get Republicans on board to help confirm her, it’s still unclear if any will vote for Jackson, who is back on Capitol Hill Thursday to try to win more support.

In a sign that will be an uphill battle, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in his floor remarks that Jackson continued to "deflect" questions on her judicial philosophy and on court-packing and argued that she put senators through an "endless circle of evasion.”

Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the committee will consider her nomination on March 28, putting the committee vote on track for April 4 and allowing Democrats to meet their goal of a full Senate confirmation vote on Jackson by April 8 -- when the Senate goes on recess.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

Mar 24, 2022, 12:42 PM EDT

Democrats reject GOP demands to see pre-sentencing reports

All Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, excluding Sen. Ben Sasse, have continued to rail against Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to allow them to see several pre-sentencing reports in child pornography cases Judge Jackson handled, claiming they can't evaluate her judicial record without them.

Because pre-trial sentencing reports are kept confidential to protect victims' privacy, Durbin has rejected the request which he called "reckless."

"No one wants to harm children," said Sen. Marsha Blackburn. R-Tenn., to which Durbin interrupted, “Then leave the reports concealed.”

Committee Chairman Dick Durbin listens to witness testimony during the final day of a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Capitol Hill, March 24, 2022.
Ken Cedeno/UPI/Shutterstock

“If you are a parent of some child who has been exploited, and you recognize this judge's name is perhaps presented at the trial, and realize that now the report that has been kept in confidence, all these years is not going to be handed over to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, what would you think as a mother?” Durbin said.

Durbin noted that it's information the Senate Judiciary Committee has never requested.

Mar 24, 2022, 11:15 AM EDT

Congressional Black Caucus chair says Jackson's confirmation will send the right message

In a passionate opening statement, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, lauded Judge Jackson’s record before the Senate Judiciary Committee and slammed what she called "unfair attacks" by Republicans -- though several GOP members on the committee weren't present to hear it.

"These bad-faith efforts exist despite a resume that arguably surpasses those of previous nominees," said Beatty, who was called as a witness by the committee's Democratic majority.

Beatty praised the history-making moment that would be Jackson’s confirmation and said Jackson "will be a judge that will serve all of America and all of America can be proud of."

"Judge Jackson's confirmation will send a message to Black women and little girls like my granddaughter Leah, whose mother is the first black woman to serve on the Tenth [Circuit] Court of Appeals, and Leah's first known president was the Black man and now she sees a Black female vice president," she said. "So if the guidance counselor tells her, ‘Your Goals are too high,’ she will remember how Judge Jackson soared against adversity as one of our nation's brightest legal minds."

Beatty also noted that Jackson was confirmed to a lifetime judicial appointment by the Senate on a bipartisan basis last year and that she clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer, who she’d be replacing, which she said wouldn't change the court’s ideological makeup.

Mar 24, 2022, 10:55 AM EDT

'Stellar' reputation: American Bar Association committee finds no faults with Jackson

The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary praised Judge Jackson’s qualifications and her unanimous "well qualified" rating, the highest rating possible, before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

The peer review committee tasked with evaluating Jackson’s judicial qualifications to the Supreme Court said they conducted confidential interviews with 250 judges and attorneys with "firsthand knowledge" of Jackson and said that everyone they spoke to thought highly of the nominee.

“The question we kept asking ourselves: How does one human being do so much, so extraordinarily well?” said retired Judge Ann Claire Williams, the first Black woman to sit on Chicago-based federal district and appellate courts.

After several Republicans on the committee painted Jackson as "soft on crime," the retired judges rejected that characterization and specifically addressed that they found no issues with her sentences in child pornography cases or with her representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

“We heard consistently from not only defense counsel but prosecutors how unbiased Judge Jackson is. We heard things like ‘doing things by the books,’” said D. Jean Veta, another member of the ABA Standing Committee.

Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton, who pressed Jackson on her sentences in previous days, did not show up.

PHOTO: American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary members Jean Veta, Ann Claire Williams and Joseph Drayton are sworn in during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, March 24, 2022.
American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary members Jean Veta, Ann Claire Williams and Joseph Drayton are sworn in to give witness testimony during the final day of a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Capitol Hill, March 24, 2022.
Ken Cedeno/UPI/Shutterstock

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