K.
Tangie Brown.
Jackson made history as the first black female nominee for the Supreme Court.
But the tone of her confirmation hearings before the Senate judiciary committee did not stray far from
that of other recent nominees.
This is a historic hearing and historic nomination.
And so there is a flavor there that we haven't had in other recent hearings,
but in many ways they are similar as in previous Supreme Court nomination
hearings.
Senators inquired about Judge Jackson's judicial philosophy,
the sense you get from her.
She has a very case by case,
fact by fact approach.
Over the course of my almost decade on
the bench,
I have developed a methodology that I use
um in order to ensure that I am ruling impartially
and that I am adhering to the limits on my jud
judicial authority.
I am acutely aware that as a judge in our
system,
I have limited power and um I am
trying in every case to stay in my lane.
The one thing that was a little bit notable,
she distanced herself from this concept of the living constitution which had been popular in
liberal circles for a while,
sort of the antidote to the conservative original meaning of the constitution.
I do not believe that there is a living
constitution in the sense that it's changing and it's and it's infused with
my own policy perspective or uh you know,
the policy perspective of the day.
Um instead the Supreme Court has made clear that when
you're interpreting the constitution,
you're looking at the text at the time of the founding,
as things started out,
the temperature was low in the room as the hearings went on.
It got a little more charged,
which is how it has been in past hearings.
Some of the most tense exchanges were between Judge Jackson and Republican senators
questioning her on her sentencing record in child pornography cases.
You are looking at 30,
40,
50 years in prison.
Good,
absolutely good.
So you're not going to answer my question?
No,
I've answered your question and my answer.
You haven't answered my question.
I'm sitting here asking you and your declining to answer.
I have sentenced more than 100 people.
You have eight or nine cases in that chart.
Okay,
Judge you said that before.
These are the eight or nine child porn cases.
I will say to correct the record,
just say to the judge,
there's no point in responding.
He's going to.
It's certainly true that there are cases in which Judge Jackson issued
sentences to child pornography defendants that were below what sentencing
guidelines recommended.
But it's also true that the sentencing guidelines on child pornography cases are pretty out of
date.
There have been calls for them to be updated their,
you know,
been bipartisan agreement that in some cases the guidelines are pretty harsh.
And so if you look at the federal statistics here,
more than two thirds of child pornography defendants are sentenced to below guidelines sentences
even though they're all still basically doing prison time.
After hours of difficult questioning New Jersey Senator Cory Booker used his
allotted time to draw attention back to the historic nature of the hearings.
It's hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom.
I see my ancestors and yours.
Nobody's going to steal the joy of that woman in the street or the calls that I'm getting or the
text.
Nobody's going to steal that joy.
You have earned this spot.
You are worthy.
You are a great american.
There was nothing that happened this week that really changed the trajectory of what's going to happen here.
She came into this hearing likely to be confirmed,
She leaves the hearing likely to be confirmed.
The democrats so long as they stay together,
have the votes to confirm her.
Even if she doesn't get any Republican votes,
it would not prevent her from sitting on the Supreme Court.