Judge Jackson. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon to your family. Congratulations to your family.
Congratulations to you for your nomination and welcome back to the
Judiciary Committee.
I engage in these proceedings with deep respect for the responsibility
that the Senate has
To advise and consent on the lifetime appointment of Supreme Court
justice.
Who would be responsible for interpreting and applying constitutional
and statutory law in the most complex and contested
And nationally significant cases.
The Constitution was a groundbreaking document when written and still
by today's standards as amended.
Considering the tyranny that prevails in much of the world.
It's guarantees of liberty and privacy and due process or exceptional
as a governing document.
Often in our history, it has fallen to the court through its decisions.
To ensure the enforcement of those guarantees.
Yet our Constitution's guarantees of individual rights and equal
protection under the law remain too often and for too many unfulfilled.
For any colleagues who doubt this. I remind them of Ahmad are Berries
murder in Glenn County, Georgia just two years ago.
When a young black man was shot dead in cold blood on camera in the
street.
And the local authorities buried the case.
And look the other way.
Only a massive civil rights mobilization.
Pressured state and eventually, federal prosecutors.
To act.
For any colleagues who doubt that those promises remain unfulfilled.
Two too many
I remind them that in my state, you can predict how long someone
must wait to vote by where they live in the color of their skin.
In practice. The promises made in the plain text of our constitution
are still too often broken for too many of our fellow Americans,
and so the court remains essential.
To that national process of becoming in real life.
What America is in text.
Today's hearing, Judge Jackson is evidence that this process continues.
And above all, a testament to you personally.
That in a nation still striving to transcend the legacies of slavery
and segregation and institutionalized racism.
Through your brilliance and resilience and hard work.
You have already rendered great service to the nation as a federal
judge.
And as a black woman, you have overcome deeply rooted obstacles.
To earn nomination to our nation's highest court.
For the first time in history.
Alongside our constitutions. Exceptional guarantees of individual
rights and equal protection is its exceptional system of checks and
balances.
Restraints on political power imposed by the diffusion of authority
across three co equal branches.
Between federal and state governments.
With the president and a federal legislature directly accountable
to voters and an independent federal judiciary whose judges must
be confirmed by elected senators.
This constitutional system has endured and developed for nearly a
quarter of a millennium.
It is resilient.
But democracy remains the exception, not the norm in history and
around the world and we cannot take the survival of our republic.
For granted. And so I look forward to engaging with you, Judge Jackson
to discuss your perspective on the separation of powers.
And the resilience of our constitution.
When threatened by political actors who would ignore the rule of
law.
Or seek to seize power by illegal or extraordinary means.
Among the court's most challenging tasks are to grapple with unsettled
law when the stakes are highest, or even existential for individuals
and for the country.
And to apply the Constitution faithfully over the long arc of history
as the world changes in profound ways and the text.
Of faithful constitutional interpretation meets new facts, New contexts
and new technologies.
Judge Jackson. Should you be confirmed? You may serve as a Supreme
Court justice Well into the middle of this century, you will rule
on cases whose contours and complexity we cannot yet.
Imagine, and so among several areas of interest, I look forward to
learning.
How you will consider protections against unreasonable search and
seizure.
In an age of ubiquitous surveillance.
How you might approach disputes over war powers.
Where law remains unsettled between executive and legislative claims.
How you will approach questions pertaining to freedoms of speech.
And of the press.
And seek that confirmation.
That you will apply the law faithfully without regard for your own
opinions as my review of your extensive work to date.
Demonstrates.
That I believe you will.
This constitutional process of advice and consent is vital to the
integrity and legitimacy of the court.
And Judge Jackson on behalf of my constituents in Georgia.
I look forward to engaging in this process with you and my colleagues.
Mr Chairman, I yield