The Senate Judiciary Committee kicks off the action at 10 a.m., with its 22 members debating Jackson’s credentials and qualifications for sitting on the nation’s highest court. Jackson, 51, was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit less than a year ago after nearly a decade as a federal trial court judge in Washington.
The Judiciary Committee — which, like the full Senate, is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans — is almost certain to deadlock 11 to 11 on her nomination. That will force Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to put a measure on the Senate floor discharging Jackson’s nomination from the committee, a vote that is expected to occur Monday evening. Her final confirmation vote on the Senate floor would happen Thursday or Friday.
As the Senate heads into the final week of Jackson’s confirmation battle, the last-minute deliberations of a handful of GOP senators are being watched closely to see whether her support will grow beyond one Republican.
Sen. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine), who has backed all but one Supreme Court nominee during her 26 years in the Senate, is the only Republican senator so far who has declared support for Jackson. The two other Republicans seen as most likely to support her are Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah.
Although Romney opposed Jackson’s elevation to the federal appeals court last year, he has stressed that he comes into this confirmation round with an open mind, and he is being heavily courted by the judge’s supporters.
With Collins’s support, Jackson is expected to get at least 51 votes in the evenly divided Senate, meaning Vice President Harris will not have to break a tie.
“What I know is, she will get enough votes to get confirmed. In the end, I suppose, that’s the only thing that matters,” Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “But I wish more Republicans would look at the case here, look at the record and vote to confirm Judge Jackson.”
If Jackson is confirmed as expected, her ascent to the Supreme Court is likely to be a key element of President Biden’s legacy, in no small part because he would be installing the first Black woman in the court’s more than two centuries of existence.
The confirmation battle shows how much more partisan Supreme Court nominations have become in recent decades. The late Justice Antonin Scalia, nominated by President Ronald Reagan, was confirmed 98 to 0 in 1986. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, nominated by President Bill Clinton, was confirmed 96 to 3 in 1993.
These days, any Supreme Court confirmation vote is almost certain to fall largely along partisan lines, reflecting the deepening polarization of the country — and the Senate.
Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.) — one Republican whom Democrats had seen as a long-shot “yes” vote, in part because he is retiring and did not have to fear political consequences — announced on Sunday that he would oppose her confirmation.
Blunt applauded her historic nomination and said she was “certainly qualified” to serve on the court. But he cited Jackson’s judicial philosophy in explaining his opposition, suggesting she did not adhere to the strict words of the Constitution.
Her “judicial philosophy seems to be not the philosophy of looking at what the law says and the Constitution says and applying that, but going through some method that allows you to try to look at the Constitution as a more flexible document, and even the law, and there are cases that show that that’s her view,” Blunt said, also on “This Week.”