Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee is on course to securing Senate confirmation in the next two weeks.
The indication comes as experts from the nation’s leading lawyers’ group dismissed Republican claims that she was “soft on crime” including child pornography.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee completed the fourth and final day of Jackson’s confirmation hearing, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said the chamber was “on track” to confirm the federal appellate judge to the lifetime job before its expected break for Easter on April 8.
There is no sign that the Republican attacks mounted this week are likely to derail Jackson’s confirmation, with Biden’s fellow Democrats narrowly controlling the Senate.
With a simple majority needed for confirmation and the Senate divided 50-50 between the parties, she would get the job if Democrats remain united regardless of how the Republicans vote.
Following liberal Justice Stephen Breyer’s January announcement of his plan to return, Biden nominated Jackson in February to become the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s top judicial body.
The committee is likely to vote on April 4 on sending her nomination to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote.
Schumer described the Republican attacks as an attempt by “just a handful” of senators to “smear” Jackson with misleading and false accusations.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced that he will vote against confirmation.
McConnell criticized Jackson in a speech on the Senate floor, accusing her of deflecting basic questions about her judicial philosophy and declining to answer legitimate questions about her own rulings.
It is possible Jackson could attract a small number of Republican votes, most likely Senator Lisa Murkowski and Senator Susan Collins.
Jackson concluded two days of marathon testimony on Wednesday night, facing repeated attacks by Republicans who accused her of being lenient in her previous role as a federal trial court judge in sentencing child pornography offenders.
“Some of the attacks on this judge were unfair, unrelenting and beneath the dignity of the United States Senate,” said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the committee’s chairman.
