Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson began on Monday as Republicans made misleading claims that she has a ‘long record’ of letting child porn offenders ‘off the hook.’
If confirmed, Jackson would become the first Black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. The nominee, picked by President Joe Biden, fielded criticism from Republicans during her first day of hearings over her supposed ‘soft-on-crime’ attitude and ‘lenient sentencing in child pornography cases.
Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley made his concerns over the judge’s record clear before the hearing even began Monday.
In a tweet the senator wrote: ‘In every single child porn case for which we can find records, Judge Jackson deviated from the federal sentencing guidelines in favor of child porn offenders,’
Hawley’s accusations, however, take Jackson’s sentencings out of context, according to factchecking conducted by the Associated Press.
In most of the child pornography cases where Jackson imposed lighter sentences than federal guidelines suggested, prosecutors or others representing the Justice Department also argued for those lighter sentences, the AP reported.
A separate factcheck done by CNN found that Hawley also took some of her comments out of context by suggesting they were opinions, rather than follow-up questions to subject-matter experts. Legal experts also agree that the judge’s sentencing record in federal child porn cases look to be mainstream.
Doug Berman, a leading expert on sentencing law and policy and The Ohio State University School of Law, that government prosecutors often request below range sentences, including in most of the cases Hawley cited.
‘Federal judges nationwide typically sentence below the [child porn] guideline in roughly 2 out of 3 cases,’ Berman wrote. ‘When deciding to go below the guideline, [judges] typically impose sentences around 54 months below the calculated guideline minimum.’
Senate Democrats and White House officials have pushed back on Hawley’s misleading claims.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat Senator Dick Durbin, from Illinois, opened up the hearings Monday by dismissing GOP claims that Jackson is ‘soft-on-crime’ or too lenient on child porn offenders.
Durbin spoke of her history within the criminal justice system and noted that she came from a law enforcement family.
‘Yet despite that shared family experience despite your record, we’ve heard claims that you’re quote soft on crime,’ said Durbin.
‘These baseless charges are unfair,’ he added.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates later called his commentary ‘toxic and weakly-presented misinformation that relies on taking cherry-picked elements of her record out of context — and it buckles under the lightest scrutiny.’
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki added that ‘in the vast majority of cases involving child sex crimes broadly, the sentences Judge Jackson imposed were consistent with or above what the government or US probation recommended.’
Other Republicans have also expressed issues with Jackson’s record, including Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn.
She attacked the SCOTUS nominee for being ‘soft-on-crime’ and going light on child porn offenders, among other things.
Blackburn also expressed concern the judge wouldn’t uphold parental rights and would institute critical race theory into the justice system.
When speaking of upholding parental rights, Blackburn specifically described ‘progressivism in schools,’ and spoke of her concerns over transgender athletes partaking in the sport associated with their gender.
‘When I talked to Tennesseans one of the most important things they bring up is parental children and moms and dads are very concerned about the progressive agenda being taught in our schools and biological males stealing opportunities from female athletes in the name of progressivism. Rather than defending our girls, they are teaching them that their voices don’t matter and being treated like second-class citizens. We need a little clarity at a time when parental rights are under assault from the radical left,’ Blackburn said.
The Tennessee Republican also questioned Jackson’s record on crime, and accused her of providing free legal services ‘to help terrorists.’
If confirmed to the Supreme Court, Jackson would also become the first federal public defender to sit on the high court. She would also be the 116th justice.
.
