When Republican Senator Josh Hawley attacked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson over her record on sex offenders this past week, Democratic heavyweights were ready to counter.
Senator Tim Kaine, of Virginia, was quick to tell The Independent, that the nation’s top police union has praised the Supreme Court nominee.
On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee begins confirmation hearings for Ms Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
She seeks to not only become the first Black woman to sit on the nation’s highest court but also the first public defender. And as a result, the White House prepared for any attacks that the judge might be soft on crime, by heralding her law enforcement credentials.
“I think from the beginning, one of the things that is among the many things that make Judge Jackson, just a remarkable nominee for the Supreme Court is the fact that she has experience in the legal system from different perspectives,” Karen Finney, Democratic strategist and a member of the Black Women’s Leadership Collective, told The Independent.
Ms Finney also noted that Ms Jackson has a brother and an uncle in law enforcement.
“So I think what tends to happen in these things is the Republicans are trying to minimize her expansive qualifications and put her in a box,” she added.
“And so part of what I think you’re seeing, not just the White House, but many of the organizations that are supporting her, those from legal institutions that have done analyses of her work.”
As soon as Judge Jackson was nominated, the White House highlighted a supportive statement from the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s top law enforcement union.
The union has not endorsed a Democrat for the White House since Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection in the wake of passing the 1994 Crime Bill. (President Joe Biden helped write that legislation as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee).
“We are reassured that, should she be confirmed, she would approach her future cases with an open mind and treat issues related to law enforcement fairly and justly,” the Fraternal Order of Police stated last month. “We wish her well as the confirmation process begins.”
When announcing Judge Jackson as his nominee, Mr Biden also cited praise from retired Judge Thomas Griffith, a nominee of former president George W Bush, who had said she had an “exemplary legal career in both public and private practice.”
These glowing endorsements, the White House hopes, can serve as a counterweight to attacks on the judge.
Judge Jackson has an unorthodox record for a judicial nominee. She currently sits on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - a job three current Supreme Court Justices including Chief Justice John Roberts held before they were nominated to the high court.
Public defenders have not been traditionally considered as viable Supreme Court nominees until Mr Biden took office and nominated a swath of them.
Democrats, and some Republicans, were hoping for a low-stakes nomination fight, especially after the contentious confirmation hearings of former president Donald Trump’s candidates.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch was nominated to the Supreme Court after Republicans held up now-Attorney General Merrick Garland’s nomination at the end of the Obama administration.
The second Trump nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, faced allegations of sexual assault which nearly derailed his confirmation. Mr Kavanaugh denies the allegations and was confirmed.
And Republicans pushed for a speedy confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett who joined the court weeks before the presidential election in 2020 and following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Trump justices shifted the balance of the court significantly to the right. By comparison, Ms Jackson would replace Justice Stephen Breyer, the longest-serving liberal on the court, and therefore not changing its ideological balance.
Regardless, Sen Hawley, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, highlighted remarks that the judge had made while on the US Sentencing Commission, and also as a law school student.
The Missouri Republican alleged that during Ms Jackson’s time on the committee that that she seemed sympathetic to child sex offenders when hearing a case of someone who was convicted on child pornography charges.
However a Washington Post fact-check revealed that Mr Hawley had misconstrued the remarks, which Judge Jackson was repeating from a witness on behalf of Jeremy Sears, a convicted sex offender.
“I mean, they are having to twist the facts and take things out of context to try to paint some other kind of picture of her,” Ms Finney said.
She noted how the Sentencing Commission was overwhelmingly bipartisan and had a low reversal rate.
“Again, there’s a more fulsome story than what is being presented. And we know that tactic,” she said. “And again, they’re using various tropes to suggest certain things about her that just aren’t true.”
Glynda Carr, president and chief executive of Higher Heights PAC, which is dedicated to electing Black women, said that it is a familiar playbook for attacking Black women.
“Unfortunately there’s a blueprint to women and Black women’s ascension in political leadership,” she said.
She noted that there were similar questions when Stacey Abrams ran for governor of Georgia in 2018. Ms Abrams running again in Georgia’s gubernatorial race in November 2022.
“I think ultimately they have prepared every scenario and angle,” Ms Carr said of Judge Jackson, adding that various media channels are being used to communicate her bona fides.
Nick Xenakis, a former general counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the most important way for nominees to prepare for questioning is to look at the judge’s first hearings before the committee.
“You have an incredibly experienced staff right now on the committee, and you have an incredibly experienced committee itself,” he told The Independent.
“Almost everyone has been doing this for decades, and the staff has been through this, both on the Democratic and Republican side, several times over, over the past few years.”
Mr Xenakis said that allows the committee staff - both on the Republican and Democratic side - to take a look not only at a nominee’s first hearing but also become attuned to the political currents at whatever moment a judge is nominated.
“One thing, obviously, people will be looking at is what has happened in between the first nomination and now,” he said.
Mr Xenakis, who is now a special counsel at Covington & Burling, noted that Judge Jackson was also endorsed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
This has come as concerns about crime have risen, which Republicans have highlighted to hit Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that “the soft on crime brigade is squarely in Judge Jackson’s corner.”
Mr Biden addressed concerns about crime in his State of the Union address. The president stated that the answer to crime is not to “defund the police,” a slogan popular among the progressive wing, but to “fund the police,” which earned an applause.
“So it’s going to be developments like that, that you’re going to look in on and you’re going to want to make sure are publicized,” Mr Xenakis said about the endorsement from the police chiefs.
“Make sure the nominee is aware, make sure members are aware, so everybody is prepared that when these issues come up, not only is the nominee prepared to answer, but also, the members of the committee are able to help either defend the nominee or buttress the nominee’s answers.”
