Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is declaring at her confirmation hearing that she will rule 'without any agendas' if approved as the high court's first black female justice.
WASHINGTON -- Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson faced a barrage of Republican questioning Wednesday about her sentencing of criminal defendants, as her history-making bid to join the Supreme Court veered from lofty constitutional questions to attacks on her motivations as a judge.
In more than 12 hours of testimony on Tuesday, GOP senators aggressively questioned her on the sentences she has handed down to child pornography offenders, her legal advocacy on behalf of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, her thoughts on critical race theory and even her religious views. That exchange with Graham was part of a larger effort by the committee's Republicans - several of whom are potential presidential candidates - to characterize Jackson's record, and her judicial philosophy, as too empathetic and soft on criminals who commit the worst offenses.
She said she bases sentences on many factors, not just federal guidelines, and that some of the cases had given her nightmares. She said that sentencing is not a"numbers game," noting that there are no mandatory sentences for sex offenders and that there has been significant debate on the subject.
Jackson would be the third Black justice, after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and the sixth woman. Her confirmation would maintain the current 6-3 conservative majority on the court. She spoke of her parents often over the two days of questioning, and contrasted her own journey to their experiences growing up during the country's segregated past.
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