Highlights from Senate vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson

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

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.


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Schumer dismisses GOP's 'desperate broadsides'

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he remains "confident" that the Senate is on track to confirm Jackson as 116th justice of the Supreme Court "by the end of this work period," which concludes April 8.

"Over the course of the week, I expect the American people will finally see for themselves why Judge Jackson is one of the most-qualified individuals ever to be nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States," Schumer said.

The Democrat continued, "I also trust that Americans will see right through the misleading and desperate broadsides that a few members of the other side have launched against the judge in recent weeks."

"We need not pretend that wild accusations from self-interested actors deserve to be taken seriously," he said. "So color me skeptical that the American people will give them much weight."

-ABC News' John Parkinson


KBJ 'poised,' 'handled herself well'

Yvette McGee Brown, the first Black woman Justice on the Ohio Supreme Court, told ABC News Live she thinks Ketanji Brown Jackson "handled herself well" at Monday's hearing.

"She was poised, she smiled," McGee Brown said. "The cameras are on her constantly, so if she smiled at the wrong time, somebody might take something inappropriate from that smile, making it look like she wasn't taking the process seriously. So I think the way she came across was being thoughtful, listening, hearing what they were saying, nodding occasionally. But it was the right approach."

McGee Brown said she thinks Jackson's background as a public defender would bring a "beneficial" "perspective" to the court.

"We want to make sure that the system lives up to the constitutional balance that the framers have put in place. It is the state's burden to prove defendants have committed a crime -- her role as a public defender was to put the state through their burden and to represent her client zealously," McGee Brown said. "I think bringing that perspective to the court will be beneficial. It will give everyone an opportunity to understand what it's like for people who can't afford their own lawyer, and hopefully during this process it will educate the public about how important it is to have both sides fairly represented."


Psaki: KBJ 'certainly deserves' bipartisan support

Asked by ABC News whether the White House believes Jackson's potential confirmation would be bipartisan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she "certainly deserves that."

"Without being able to get into the minds of a range of Republican members," Psaki said, "our view's that given she has been confirmed three times with bipartisan support, that she has extensive experience, that she has ruled in favor of Democrats and Republicans under leaders of both parties, that she certainly deserves that. But we will see what the outcome ends up being."

-ABC News' Justin Ryan Gomez


Sherpa Doug Jones previews KBJ’s responses Tuesday

Former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, the Biden administration's sherpa for Jackson as she undergoes the Senate confirmation process, followed Monday’s opening statements by previewing what to expect from Jackson on Tuesday.

"What I think you're gonna hear from Judge Jackson tomorrow is the way she goes about judging and a process and a methodology that some will call a philosophy, others will just call it a process, but it's going to be very, very consistent with what you heard today from almost everybody on that dias of what they want in a Supreme Court justice," he said. "Fairness, impartiality, judicial restraint, not staying in a judicial lane, not being a policymaker -- that's what you're going to hear the next two days from this judge."

Asked how he expects Jackson to respond to accusations that she's "soft on crime," Jones said it will be "very simple for her to make the argument because she's going to point to her record."

"If she was truly a judge with a demonstrated history -- a judge -- with a demonstrated history of being 'soft on crime,' she would not have been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Police Chiefs, attorney generals from across the country from both sides of the aisle, former DOJ officials, former national security officials, former George W. Bush officials -- that wouldn't happen," Jones said.

He said attacks from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., were "not surprising" and that Jackson will be able to talk about each of the seven cases he’s taken issue with over the next two days.