Closing summary
We’re closing down the blog now after a day dominated by the historic confirmation by the US Senate of the first Black judge, Ketanji Brown Jackson, to a seat on the US supreme court.
Please join us again tomorrow, when Joe Biden will talk about Jackson’s confirmation from the White House, and for what will surely be another busy day in US politics.
Remember you can continue to follow developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict on our live blog here.
Here’s where else our day went:
- The New York attorney general Letitia James filed for a contempt order against Donald Trump for his refusal to cooperate with her inquiry into his business dealings.
- The House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she had tested positive for Covid-19.
- The justice department blocked the House 6 January inquiry from accessing 15 boxes of Trump’s White House records, according to reports.
One other issue to emerge from this afternoon’s White House press briefing: the Biden administration dismissed as “a publicity stunt” a declaration by the Texas governor Greg Abbott that he was going to bus undocumented migrants to Washington DC.
Abbott floated the plan as his response to the upcoming termination of Title 42, a Trump-era immigration policy blocking migrants at the US southern border because of Covid-19. Critics of the administration, and the homeland security department, predict a surge of migrants when the program ends next month.
“I’m not aware of any authority the governor would be doing that under,” Psaki said.
“I think it’s pretty clear this is a publicity stunt, his own office admits that a migrant would need to voluntarily be transported and he can’t compel them to because enforcement of our country’s immigration government lies with the federal government, not a state.”
Inevitably, questions in the White House briefing room turned to Covid-19 and the announcement earlier today that the House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was twice in Joe Biden’s close company without a mask in recent days, had tested positive.
Psaki said the administration was not concerned for the 79-year-old president’s age because, under centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) guidelines, the two are not considered “close contacts.”
“It’s not arbitrary. It’s not something made up by the White House,” Psaki said of the guidelines. “They define it as being within six feet for a cumulative total of 15 minutes over a 24 hour period that they were not.
“In terms of additional testing or anything along those lines, those assessments would be made by the president’s doctor. He was tested last evening and tested negative.
“We have incredibly stringent protocols at the White House that we keep in place to keep the president, to keep everybody safe. Those go over and above CDC guidelines, and that includes ensuring that anyone who is going to be around the president is tested.”
Over at the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki has been answering questions about US arms shipments to Ukraine, given military leaders’ assessments that the war against Russia could take years.
“There are transfers of systems nearly every single day,” Psaki said, hours after the Ukraine defense minister Dymtro Zulebi told journalists in Brussels that there were only three items on his country’s wish list for the US and its allies: “Weapons, weapons and weapons.”
“For every Russian tank in Ukraine, the United States will have, or has provided, 10 anti-tank systems. For every Russian armored vehicle in Ukraine, the United States will have provided about three anti-armor systems, if you factor in contributions from allies,” Psaki said.
“The way this works is that the Ukrainian leaders request a range of assistance, they often provide us lists, we go through that list, we determine what we can provide. We provide a vast, vast majority of what they’re requesting [and] if we don’t have access to it, sometimes it’s Russian-made military equipment, we work with our allies and partners to see what they can provide.”
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the US supreme court shatters several glass ceilings in America’s long struggle to form a more perfect union.
Not only will she be the first Black woman to sit on the court since it assembled in 1790. She will also be the first justice with experience as a public defender to join a bench that has hosted many former prosecutors.
When Jackson takes her seat on the nine-justice panel, following Stephen Breyer’s retirement probably in June, she will also raise its female contingent to four – a historic number that brings a majority of female justices within reach.
On a more personal level, her promotion to the supreme court is the fulfillment of her ambition to excel at the law which she has nurtured from a young age. It is the realization of the promise given to her by her parents, who were themselves brought up under the ignominies of racial segregation in the US south.
Read more here:
Vice-president Kamala Harris, who oversaw the senate vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson, said she was “overjoyed” at the result.
“I am feeling overjoyed and I am feeling a deep sense of pride in who we are as a nation,” Harris told reporters as she was leaving the chamber, according to NPR.
The White House has announced that Harris will join President Joe Biden for a press conference on the South Lawn tomorrow at 12.15pm to talk about Jackson’s confirmation.
Vice President Harris took the gavel in her role as head of the Senate to preside over Ketanji Brown Jackson's vote. Leaving the Senate afterward, Harris said she was "overjoyed." pic.twitter.com/9DhSSHJ9P1
— NPR (@NPR) April 7, 2022
Supreme court scholars are weighing in with analysis on the Jackson confirmation, calling her a “worthy successor” to the retiring liberal justice Stephen Breyer.
“She possesses all of the attributes that the US expects of supreme court justices, she has substantial relevant experience as a judge at the district and appellate levels of the federal judiciary, is highly intelligent, diligent and independent, and enjoys balanced judicial temperament. She amply displayed all of these phenomena throughout three grueling days of questioning,” Carl Tobias, Williams chair in law at the University of Richmond said.
“Her confirmation will enhance the supreme court and the nation in many critical ways. Of course, her appointment is historic, as she is the first Black woman to serve, she will improve court diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender, ideology and experience.
“Jackson [also] promises to be a mainstream justice, which is important, because the Court is more ideologically conservative than it has been in the last 80 years and may not reflect the will of the people. Her diverse experiences are also critical, as Justice Sotomayor is the only justice who served as a district judge and no present justice has engaged in criminal defense work, which Jackson did and which improves her decision making.”
Professor Tobias added he was hopeful Jackson’s torrid confirmation process would lead to improvements in how future supreme court justices are seated.
“Many Americans, including members of the judiciary committee, believe that the confirmation process has been deteriorating. The process has become overly politicized and partisan and senators asked Jackson too many questions that lacked relevance, seemed calculated to score political points ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, or were even improper or insulting.
“I am cautiously optimistic that committee members and other senators will work on improvements in the process, which now can reflect poorly on the committee, the Senate, and the president and may erode public confidence in all three branches of federal government, but especially the court.”
ABC News has tweeted an image of Ketanji Brown Jackson hugging with President Joe Biden, taken at the White House at the moment her supreme court confirmation vote passed the majority threshold.
Pres. Biden and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson embrace as the vote to confirm her to the Supreme Court crosses the majority threshold. https://t.co/WvWpIOOWA4 pic.twitter.com/66QttlDRSE
— ABC News (@ABC) April 7, 2022
Updated
White House: Jackson confirmation 'a tremendously historic day'
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation represents “a tremendously historic day at the White House and in the country,” according to Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki.
Speaking at her afternoon press briefing, Psaki said Biden had remained engaged through the entire confirmation process, talking with senators on both sides of the political divide.
“This is a fulfillment of a promise the president made to the country. His time on the judiciary committee was defining for him and gave him historically exceptional preparation for what we would consider a smooth process, characterized by heavy engagement with both parties in the senate,” Psaki said.
“He promised to choose a successor in the mold of Justice [Stephen] Breyer as Republicans and Democrats called for and after thorough consideration chose Judge Jackson, or Justice Jackson I guess we can now call her.
“The President’s outreach continued at this stage, calling senators in both parties early about his choice. Out of the gate, he proved he had chosen someone in the tradition by immediately getting endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police and Judge Thomas Griffith [Biden’s appointee to the presidential commission on the supreme court], followed by procession of leading conservative legal minds and additional law enforcement organizations.”
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been confirmed as the next Supreme Court Justice. pic.twitter.com/A27Onkeljd
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 7, 2022
In Ketanji Brown Jackson, “President Biden picked the most extraordinary individual that I could think of in America,” the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee, Dick Durbin, has said.
“She turned out to be a pillar of strength to show grace and dignity and really won over the hearts of the American people,” he told reporters after the confirmation vote.
“We want to make our justice system look much more like America. And today we took a giant step forward in giving this judge, Ketanji Brown Jackson, her lifetime chance to serve on the United States supreme court.”
The president of the national association for the advancement of colored people (NAACP) Derrick Johnson has welcomed Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the supreme court.
“In 2022, the first Black woman will finally sit on America’s supreme court. It has taken far too long, but President Biden promised and delivered,” he said in a statement.
“Former NAACP Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall broke down the wall when he was nominated and confirmed as the first Black American to sit on the Supreme Court. Today, Ketanji Brown Jackson shattered the glass ceiling.
Congratulations to NOW Supreme Court Justice #KetanjiJacksonBrown on this historic appointment!
— NAACP (@NAACP) April 7, 2022
History MADE!#BlackWomenAreSupreme #ThisIsPower pic.twitter.com/k3TbsmuB9a
“While history has been made today, the unjust hurdles Black women like Ketanji Brown Jackson face each and every day were centerstage throughout the hearing process. The racist attacks were disgusting and shameful, but, as Black women do, Ketanji Brown Jackson outshined the hate. Today and every day, we celebrate Black women.
“The NAACP remains committed to tearing down the racist obstacles that continue to obstruct paths for far too many Americans, especially Black women, throughout our nation. While we celebrate today, tomorrow we are back at work tackling student debt, voting and reproductive rights, climate change, and police reform, so that everyone in America can realize their dream.”
Updated
Finally, Rand Paul, unsurprisingly, makes his vote a no, making Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic confirmation vote final at 53-47.
“On this vote the yays are 53, the nays are 47, and this nomination is confirmed,” the vice-president Kamala Harris, said, acting in her role of Senate president.
The chamber immediately erupted into cheers.
Updated
The final vote tally for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s supreme court confirmation is not yet in. The Republican Kentucky senator Rand Paul is, for reasons that are still unclear, yet to cast his vote.
Regardless, Jackson’s confirmation is a done deal, with the tally standing at 53-46 in her favor. She will be sworn in sometime in late June or early July, when the liberal justice Stephen Breyer, whom she is replacing, retires from the bench.
Updated
Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson to US supreme court
The US Senate has voted to confirm Joe Biden’s pick Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to a seat on the US supreme court.
The historic vote makes her the first Black woman to sit on the nation’s highest court.
Full story here:
Updated
The Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is giving his closing remarks ahead of the chamber’s vote on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s supreme court confirmation.
“This is a wonderful day, a joyous day and an inspiring day for the Senate, the supreme court, and the United States of America,” he said.
“It’s been a dark two years with Covid... but even in the darkest times there are bright lights. Today is one of the brightest lights. Let us hope it is a metaphor, an indication of many more bright lights.
“Every step of her upbringing and career, Ketanji Brown Jackson ranked one of the highest achievers.”
She will, he said, “enhance the court’s ability to preserve the basic truth in our country that all deserve equal justice under the law, from the privilege to the impoverished.”
Schumer acknowledged that Jackson will become the first Black woman to sit on the panel.
“This judge belongs on the supreme court. By that I mean something very specific. In our nation’s history, 115 individuals have been confirmed by this body to serve on the supreme court. Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the first African American woman ever to hold the title. The kids will open textbooks and see pictures of Justice Jackson among the highest ranks.”
NY attorney general seeks contempt ruling on Trump
New York’s attorney general Letitia James has asked a state judge to hold Donald Trump in contempt of court for refusing to turn over documents she subpoenaed for her civil investigation into the former US president’s business operations.
In the court filing, James said Trump failed to abide by his earlier agreement to comply “in full” with her subpoena for documents and information by 31 March. James is seeking that Trump be fined $10,000 a day until he complies.
Last week, James asked the appeals court to uphold a lower-court ruling requiring Trump to answer questions under oath, after a civil investigation uncovered evidence he may have misstated the value of assets like golf courses and skyscrapers on financial statements for more than a decade.
“The evidence collected to date suggests that financial statements, tax submissions, loan guarantees, and other documents contain material misstatements and omissions,” James’s office said in court papers.
James is also seeking to uphold a ruling forcing Trump’s two oldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr, to testify. Both have been executives at the Trump Organization.
How the supreme court confirmation vote will work
Here’s a handy explainer, courtesy of CNN, about how the supreme court confirmation process works. Essentially, Judge Ketanji Brown’s lifetime appointment to the bench will be confirmed by a simple majority vote of the 100 US senators in the chamber this afternoon.
The US Senate is currently evenly split, between 50 Republicans, and the 48 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with them. In the event of a 50-50 tie in the Senate confirmation vote, the Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris would be called upon to break the tie and promote Jackson to the supreme court.
Three Republicans, however, and two at least two moderate Democrats whose votes might have been in the balance, have publicly declared their support for Jackson.
So, even if there are no more defections, Harris’s intervention will not be necessary, and the vote for Jackson would be at least 53-47 in her favor. That’s the same margin that senators voted in the last hour to end discussion on Jackson’s nomination and advance the process to the final Senate floor vote.
Assuming she is confirmed, Jackson will be seated later this summer, when the liberal justice Stephen Breyer, whose retirement led to Joe Biden nominating Jackson for his seat, stands down after 22 years’ service.
Updated
Senate clears Jackson confirmation for final vote
Supreme court: key preliminary vote passes to limit debate in Senate
The Senate has now voted 53 to 47 to limit debate on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the supreme court. The cloture vote is a key part of the process with the final confirmation vote expected later Thursday in the early afternoon in Washington DC.
“No one can argue that Justice Brown Jackson is not qualified to be confirmed,” said Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, in the chamber just after the vote. “Judge Jackson has earned the president’s nomination, and has earned confirmation from the Senate.”
He criticized the way Republicans conducted themselves in the nomination hearings.
Shortly earlier he tweeted that it was a day to “make history”.
Today, we make history. Today, our democracy becomes more representative & our nation becomes a slightly more perfect union. Today, we confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. WATCH my remarks on the Senate Floor at ~12:15 pm here: https://t.co/UaJF9PVy2l
— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) April 7, 2022
Updated
She left it late, but the Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, a moderate Democrat, has just announced she will vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US supreme court.
News of Sinema’s potential vote has been closely watched. Along with fellow moderate Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the two have combined to derail several of Joe Biden’s policy goals in the US Senate this term.
Manchin declared his intention to support Jackson last week, and with at least three Republicans on board, Sinema’s vote was not in the end crucial - although it would have been a surprise for her to have voted no.
A cloture vote to end Senate debate on Jackson’s nomination is due imminently, and the final confirmation vote is scheduled for about 1.45pm.
Statement on Voting to Confirm the Nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court pic.twitter.com/gW56qH8ccz
— Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) April 7, 2022
Updated
House speaker Nancy Pelosi tests positive for Covid-19
The House speaker Nancy Pelosi has tested positive for Covid-19, her office has just announced.
A statement from the Speaker’s spokesperson Drew Hammill reads:
After testing negative this week, Speaker Pelosi received a positive test result for Covid-19 and is currently asymptomatic. The Speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided.
The Speaker will quarantine consistent with CDC guidance, and encourages everyone to get vaccinated, boosted and test regularly.”
Pelosi, 82, was with president Joe Biden, and the former president Barack Obama, at the White House on Tuesday as he signed an executive order extending the affordable care act. Few of the attendees were masked.
She was with Biden again yesterday at the White House when the president signed the postal services act. The White House press secretary Jen Psaki is certain to be asked about it at her lunchtime briefing today.
Obama has recently recovered from Covid-19.
Pelosi was not an attendee at the Gridiron dinner in Washington DC on Saturday, following which several Biden administration officials tested positive, including the US attorney general Merrick Garland and commerce secretary Gina Raimondo, as well as Democratic congressmen Adam Schiff and Joaquin Castro.
After testing negative this week, Speaker Pelosi received a positive test result for COVID-19 and is currently asymptomatic. The Speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided. (1/2)
— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) April 7, 2022
Updated
Justice department 'blocks Trump records from 6 January panel'
The justice department is blocking the 6 January House investigation from accessing more than a dozen boxes of records from the Trump White House, CNN is reporting, fueling speculation they are the subject of its own criminal inquiry.
According to the network, National Archives general counsel Gary Stern wrote to the House oversight committee saying it was unable to respond to a request for information from the panel about the records based on the Archives’ “consultation” with the justice department.
The bipartisan panel is looking into Trump’s efforts to overturn his election defeat, including his incitement of the deadly 6 January Capitol attack.
The 15 boxes of records in question are those Trump is said to have taken with him to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, in January 2021 when he left office, in apparent violation of federal records laws.
The development is a bump for the House panel, which has made significant headway in recent weeks as it attempts to establish Trump’s culpability. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, both former White House advisers, have given testimony in the past few days.
The justice department, and the US attorney general Merrick Garland, have come under fire for perceived slow progress in its own inquiry.
CNN said the justice department had declined to comment, but that it was common practice to limit information that government agencies share with Congress while an investigation is ongoing.
On Wednesday, the House voted to hold former Trump advisers Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro in contempt for refusing subpoenas to testify to the panel.
Read more:
Updated
There’s alarming news for Democrats in Pennsylvania with a report claiming Republicans are recruiting their rivals’ disgruntled former voters at a rate four times greater than those going the other way.
The conversions are “a warning sign” for Democrats as they attempt to keep control of Congress in November’s midterm elections, the Reuters report states. Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state that backed Joe Biden narrowly in 2020, is likely to see a furious scramble for one of its Senate seats with the retirement of Pat Toomey, the only statewide elected Republican.
“I just got fed up and just felt like there has to be a better way,” Beth Jones, 48, a retired Philadelphia police officer who last month registered as a Republican, told Reuters, citing crime and high inflation for her decision. Jones said she had voted Democratic for three decades.
Reuters said it examined registration data in six states that could see tight US Senate races in November and which generally require voters to be members of a party to participate in nominating contests. While each state tracks voter registration differently, the review pointed to Republican gains in four of those states, and no substantial difference in two of them.
In Pennsylvania, Republicans have converted four Democrats for every Republican who has switched the other way, according to the Pennsylvania’s state department data. The conversion rate is well above 2016, Reuters says, when Republicans took the White House, House of Representatives and Senate.
A bipartisan group of senators wants Joe Biden to reverse the decision to end the Trump-era immigration policy that blocked refugees at the US southern border because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Axios is reporting that the group of five Democratic and six Republican senators will introduce a bill later today that would prevent the Biden administration from lifting Title 42 without a detailed plan in place to stop an expected surge of migrants at the border.
“It is evident that the current preparations and plans for the end of Title 42 aren’t adequate,” Axios quoted the bill’s co-sponsor, the Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, stating she met with the homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday.
The Biden administration announced last week that the policy introduced by Trump in 2020 would end on 23 May, painting it as a public health move because the pandemic was easing.
But the announcement has received massive pushback, and threatens to derail negotiations in Congress over a relief package for vaccines, treatments and testing, the Washington Post reported.
The White House wanted $22.5bn, and a bipartisan panel of senators appeared to have settled on $10bn, before the Title 42 prompted a furious reaction from Republicans.
Adding to the acrimony, the Texas governor Greg Abbott says he’s going to round up busloads of undocumented immigrants and send them to Washington DC for Joe Biden to deal with, according to CNN.
Read about the impact of the Title 42 decision here:
California cities 'spent Covid relief money on police'
Big cities in California spent large portions of their federal Covid relief money on police departments, a review of public records has revealed, with several cities prioritizing police funding by a wide margin.
As part of the American Rescue Plan Act (Arpa), the Biden administration’s signature stimulus package, the US government sent funds to cities to help them fight coronavirus and support local recovery efforts. The money, officials said, could be used to fund a range of services, including public health and housing initiatives, healthcare workers’ salaries, infrastructure investments and aid for small businesses.
But most large California cities spent millions of Arpa dollars on law enforcement. Some also gave police money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act, adopted in 2020 under Donald Trump.
In a state with severe income inequality and a dramatically worsening homelessness crisis, the stimulus spending has sparked backlash from community organizers who argue that the funds should have gone directly to civilians and that police should have accepted cuts.
“It was called the ‘American Rescue Plan’, but you’re telling me that what needed to be rescued was the police department?” said Stephen “Cue” Jn-Marie, a pastor and activist at Skid Row in LA. “The city’s kneejerk reaction is always to use law enforcement to respond to everything … and the police forces keep getting larger.”
Read the full story here:
The Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has scheduled a 1.45pm vote for the confirmation of Joe Biden’s pick Ketanji Brown Jackson to be confirmed as the first Black female associate justice of the US Supreme Court.
In a tweet, Schumer said: “It will be a joyous day for America!”
Tomorrow afternoon:
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 7, 2022
This Senate is on track to hold our final vote on confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court!
It will be a joyous day for America!
Despite a fractious and sometimes farcical hearing in the House two weeks ago, and the announcement of high-profile Republican senator Lindsey Graham that he wouldn’t support her now (despite voting for her earlier elevation to the US appeals court), her confirmation is all but certain.
Three Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have announced they will vote for her, assuring Biden of a prized bipartisan appointment in the equally divided chamber.
Jackson’s elevation to the nation’s highest court, replacing the long-serving liberal justice Stephen Breyer, who is retiring, is more than just symbolic. The lifetime appointment at the age of 51 could see Jackson on the bench for decades, and she will likely prove a vocal counter to the panel’s current 6-3 conservative majority.
The Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate judiciary, praised Jackson’s “impeccable qualifications” on Monday, and said her experience as a public defender would bring a “missing perspective to the court”.
“Hers is a uniquely American family story, how much hope and promise can be achieved in just one generation,” Durbin said. “I’m proud we can bear witness to it.”
Jackson will become only the sixth woman to sit on the Supreme Court in its more than 200-year history.
Read the highlights of Jackson’s confirmation hearings here:
Updated
Good morning blog readers, and welcome to what will be a busy Thursday. It’s a big day at the US supreme court, where Joe Biden’s pick Ketanji Brown Jackson is almost certain to be confirmed as its newest associate justice in a Senate vote scheduled for 1.45pm.
The Ukraine conflict continues to dominate headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. Follow developments on our live news blog here.
Also happening in US politics today:
- A bipartisan group of senators is calling for Joe Biden to reverse the decision to end the Trump-era Title 42 immigration policy blocking refugees at the southern border because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The Texas governor Greg Abbott says he’s going to round up undocumented migrants and put them on buses to Washington DC for the president to deal with.
- Covid-19 numbers are rising again in many states as the BA.2 variant takes hold and wrangling continues in Congress over the size of a financial support package.
- The US is calling for Russia to be suspended from the United Nations’ human rights council for alleged atrocities in Ukraine. The general assembly votes today in New York.
- The White House press secretary Jen Psaki will deliver her daily briefing at 1pm.
