Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said there is “no question” that Ketanji Brown Jackson has the qualifications to be a Supreme Court justice.
The Republican senator from Kentucky met with Judge Jackson on Wednesday, and was also complimentary of President Joe Biden’s pick for the highest court in the land during a radio appearance on “The Guy Benson Show.”
“I think she’s intelligent, very likely progressive. The Senate Republican minority intends to treat the nominee respectfully,” McConnell said.
“I’m not at all interested, for example, in what someone may have written in her high school yearbook,” McConnell added. This appeared to be in reference to the contentious 2018 Senate hearing for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was selected by former President Donald Trump.
President Biden has nominated Jackson to fill the Supreme Court vacancy that will be left open after the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer. Biden had promised to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court upon taking office. Jackson currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and would make history as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court if she is confirmed. What’s more, Jackson once clerked for Breyer.
A “truly humbled” Jackson introduced herself to America during a White House event last week, where she expressed her love for the U.S. and the Constitution; she credited God and her faith for her blessings in life; and she noted that she has family in Florida and in law enforcement.
“If I’m fortunate enough to be confirmed as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,” she said, “I can only hope that my life and career, my love of this country and the Constitution, and my commitment to upholding the rule of law and the sacred principles upon which this great nation is founded, will inspire future generations of Americans.”
Judge Jackson’s nomination hearing in front of members of the Senate will begin on March 21 and conclude on March 24, according to Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin.