Missouri senator grills President Biden’s Supreme Court pick in committee hearing

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Tuesday. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) still has questions about the nominee’s judgment in past cases, specifically having to do with sentencing in child pornography cases.

Jackson hit back at Hawley’s line of questioning, saying she takes such cases seriously and has not doled out lighter sentences than her peers.

Judge Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. The high court nominee was a federal public defender before being named a federal judge in 2012. The Harvard graduate currently serves in the U.S. District Court in DC. Judge Jackson is set to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.

Hawley questioned why Judge Jackson did not describe past child porn cases as “heinous” or “egregious”.

“Help me understand that, what word would you use?” asked Hawley.

“It is heinous. It is egregious. What a judge has to do is determine how to sentence defendants proportionately consistent with the elements that the statutes include with the requirements that Congress has set forward,” responded Jackson.

Questioning from senators is expected to continue well into the evening here on Capitol Hill, continuing through the day Wednesday.

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