Democrats Plot Quick Path to Jackson’s Confirmation to Court

(Bloomberg) -- Senate Democrats are plotting out a confirmation vote by early next month for President Joe Biden’s first Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, as Republicans signal there will be less of the rancor that surrounded former President Donald Trump’s picks.

Jackson won backing from all 50 Democrats and three Republicans when Biden nominated her for a federal appeals court. As long as they stay unified, Democrats have the votes to confirm Jackson without GOP support with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking any tie.

Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, who is also the Senate’s No. 2 Democratic leader, said last week his goal is to put Biden’s nominee before the full Senate by April 9, the start of a two-week congressional Easter recess. A recent stroke that hospitalized Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico underscored the fragility of Democrats’ majority, although Lujan is expected to be back in the Senate in time to vote on the confirmation.

The two Senate Democrats who have often bedeviled party leaders with their independence -- Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona -- have voted in lockstep with Democrats on Biden’s nominees to fill federal district and appellate court vacancies.

Manchin said weeks ago he could vote to confirm a Supreme Court nominee with a more liberal philosophy than his own, a positive signal for Jackson’s nomination.

Sinema, who rarely flags how she would vote, said in a Friday statement that she would consider “whether the nominee is professionally qualified, believe in the role of an independent judiciary, and can be trusted to faithfully interpret and uphold the rule of law.”

Biden, who spent 36 years in the Senate, has been trying to lay the groundwork for at least some Republican support by calling some Senate Republicans and dispatching top aides to talk with others. Among them are Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both of whom voted to Jackson’s confirmation to the appeals court.

Biden appears to be giving particular attention to Collins, who has expressed openness to supporting his choice for the court. She said late last week that Biden has called her twice to discuss the court vacancy and that White House Counsel Dana Remus came to her office to discuss possible nominees.

Collins on Friday called Jackson “an experienced federal judge with impressive academic and legal credentials.”

Murkowski said a vote to confirm a nominee to a lower court doesn’t necessarily indicate how she’d vote for a Supreme Court justice.

“I am committed to doing my due diligence before making a final decision on this nominee,” she said in a statement.

However, GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the third Republican vote for Jackson’s earlier confirmation, criticized her as too liberal for the high court. He had lobbied for Biden to pick U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs, who hails from Graham’s home state.

Jackson’s nomination “means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again,” Graham tweeted. “The attacks by the Left on Judge Childs from South Carolina apparently worked.”

Other Republican votes will be hard to come by.

‘Vigorous’ Vetting

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell opposed Jackson’s confirmation to the federal court of appeals in Washington and said Friday she’s “the favored choice of far-left dark money groups.” 

McConnell said Jackson will be subject to “the vigorous and thorough Senate process that the American people deserve.” But he and other Republicans have been drawing a contrast to the bitter battles over past Republican nominees.

In 2017, a GOP majority permanently changed Senate rules to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first pick, in the face of objections from Democrats. The 2018 proceedings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh were mired in allegations he sexually assaulted a woman when he was a teenager. And in 2020 Republicans broke with Senate traditions to confirm Amy Coney Barrett just weeks before a presidential election, after having blocked a Supreme Court nominee in 2016 because it was too close to the election. 

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary panel, is promising a “respectful” nomination process.

“I have no intention of degrading the advice and consent role as Senate Democrats have in recent confirmations,” he said Friday in a statement.

One reason Republicans may not engage in a bruising battle over Jackson is that she won’t alter the ideological balance on the court, which has a solid 6-3 conservative majority.

Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of GOP leadership, said late last week that Republicans might benefit politically by focusing less on the confirmation and more on areas weighing down Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, like rising inflation, supply-chain issues and the U.S.’s troubled withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who has said Biden’s intention of elevating a black woman means the pick benefits from “affirmative action,” said in an interview late last week there’s little doubt Biden will have the votes to confirm his choice.

“I don’t think there will be a big row over this nominee,” Wicker said.

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