The Senate on Monday elevated one of President Joe Biden’s potential Supreme Court picks to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, who faced opposition from Senate Republicans, was confirmed in a 53-44 vote. Jackson was a judge in the D.C. District Court previously, where she helped decide several high-profile cases involving former President Donald Trump’s administration.
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During her confirmation hearings, Jackson alarmed some Republicans when she side-stepped Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s questions about her opinions on the “living Constitution,” a method of constitutional interpretation that adapts to the circumstances of the times.
Jackson said she had “not had any cases that have required me to develop a view on constitutional interpretation of text.”
That statement led Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley to state he could not support a candidate who was not “affirmatively committed to the Constitution as originally understood.”
Jackson also distanced herself from a defunct school where she once served on the board. That school, Montrose Christian, opposed abortion and gay marriage. Jackson told Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley she was not aware of the school’s beliefs when she sat on the board.
Three Republicans — Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — voted for Jackson’s confirmation on Monday.
Biden appointed Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead the Justice Department in February, opening a seat on the D.C. Circuit. The vacancy is often a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. If Justice Stephen Breyer retires, Jackson, who is 50, is one in the handful of prospective nominees considered qualified to fulfill Biden’s campaign promise to put a black woman on the bench.
Jackson clerked for Breyer after graduating from Harvard Law School. She raised her profile nationally when in 2019, she ruled that White House counsel Don McGahn had to testify in the House of Representatives Russia investigation.Â
If Breyer retires, Jackson could become the fourth justice in the past two decades to ascend to the high court from the D.C. Circuit. The appeals court has produced three sitting Supreme Court justices: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas. The late Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg also sat on the court.
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However, Breyer has not indicated he will retire any time soon. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday if Republicans regain control of the Senate, it’s an open question whether they would vote on a Biden appointee.
“We’ll have to wait and see what happens,” McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt.
