Here’s How Awful the GOP Was on Day 1 of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Confirmation Hearing

Image courtesy of The Hill

It was only the first day of hearings, but Republicans wasted no time proving that they are, as Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton once aptly described them, deplorable.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who isn’t known for her acumen, used her time to seek to tie Judge Jackson to all manner of conservative grievances. At one point, Sen. Blackburn veered off into a diatribe about transgender women in sports, opining without any context that “educators are allowing biological males to steal opportunities from female athletes in the name of progressivism.” Judge Jackson has never written any opinions or even made any public statements whatsoever on this matter, but Sen. Blackburn was undeterred. She sought to link Jackson to transgender controversies by quoting Judge Jackson, who praised “the transformative power of progressive education.” That quote was, however, from a profile in her child’s day school magazine, where Judge Jackson noted she had “witnessed the transformative power of a rigorous progressive education that is dedicated to fostering critical thinking, independence and social justice.” 

After she was roundly criticized for her statements, Sen. Blackburn revealed what was perhaps her true intent: to be portrayed as a victim of cancel culture. “The liberal media will not silence me,” she tweeted—an ironic statement given she has four hundred twenty-five thousand followers on Twitter and was just given a national platform and full media coverage to spout conservative talking points.

Not to be outdone, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) focused on child pornography, a cynical go-to for conservatives and conspiracy pushers alike when they need to scare their base about something. Long before the hearing began, Sen. Hawley launched his attack on Twitter, in a 17-part thread accusing Judge Jackson of a “pattern” of excusing heinous conduct. Judge Jackson had participated as a member in the U.S. Sentencing Commission which was reviewing the appropriateness of high mandatory minimum sentences. But as the Washington Post reported, in his missive Sen. Hawley was disingenuous in the extreme, for example using quotes he attributed to Judge Jackson when in fact she was merely repeating or reading witnesses’ statements, or using simple questions that she had asked as evidence that these were actually her personal opinions. Even the conservative National Review called him out for his attacks, saying they were “meritless to the point of demagoguery.”

Jackson responded to the charges with poise and grace, saying “as a mother, and a judge who has had to deal with these cases, I was thinking that nothing could be further from the truth,” in regards to Hawley’s accusations. She explained, “These are some of the most difficult cases that a judge has to deal with, because we’re talking about pictures of sex abuse of children, we’re talking about graphic descriptions that judges have to read and consider when they decide how to sentence in these cases, and there is a statute that tells judges what they’re supposed to do.”

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was fairly awful as well, using his time to criticize President Biden over his “high-tech lynching” of Justice Clarence Thomas (an interesting choice in terms given Justice Thomas and Judge Jackson are both African American) and to blast what he viewed as unfair questioning during the confirmation hearing for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “No one is going to inquire into your teenage dating habits. No one is going to ask you with mock severity, do you like beer,” Cruz said to Judge Jackson, somehow characterizing inquiries into credible allegations of sexual assault as questions about Justice Kavanaugh’s “dating habits.” He also launched into conservative talking points of this own, wondering whether Judge Jackson would protect the freedom to say things the government doesn’t want people to say, whether she would “crush religious liberty,” and whether she would protect the Second Amendment right to “defend your family, defend your children?”

In the end, none of these attacks is likely to change the calculus in the Senate, where the White House believes it has the votes to confirm Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court. Her confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit garnered 53 votes in favor, including Republicans Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). While the latter has indicated he is no longer in favor of the nominee, even just one year after voting to confirm her, so far there is no indication that Judge Jackson will lose the support of any Democrats or the two more centrist women Republicans who voted to confirm her before. Nevertheless, we should expect more of the same bad behavior from the GOP over the course of the hearings as they play to their base for memes on social media and sound bytes on right-wing shows.