President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, continued her confirmation hearings on March 24 in Washington, D. C.
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) asked Jackson to define the word “woman,” and Jackson told her she could not.
“Not in this context,” Brown said. “I’m not a biologist.”
“The meaning of the word woman is so unclear and controversial that you can’t give me a definition?” Blackburn asked.
“Senator, in my work as a judge, what I do is, I address disputes,” Jackson said. “If there’s a dispute about a definition, people make arguments, and I look at the law, and I decide.”
“The fact that you can’t give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education that we are hearing about,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn also asked Jackson about transgender athletes, specifically the recent NCAA Woman’s Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, where Lia Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win a Division I collegiate national championship on March 17.
“An entire generation of young girls watched as our taxpayer-funded institutions permitted a biological man to compete, and beat, a biological woman in the NCAA swimming championships,” Blackburn said. “What message do you think this sends to girls who aspire to compete and win in sports at the highest levels?”
“I’m not sure what message that sends,” Jackson said. “If you’re asking me about the legal issues related to it, those are topics that are being hotly discussed, as you say, and could come to the (Supreme) Court,” Jackson said.
“I think it tells our girls that their voices don’t matter,” Blackburn said. “I think it tells them that they’re second-class citizens, and parents want to have a Supreme Court justice who is committed to preserving parental autonomy and protecting our nation’s children.”
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee also focused on Jackson’s service on the board of a wealthy private school in D.C., where her daughter is a student.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) noted the institution, Georgetown Day School, is known for its focus on social justice issues and “is filled and overflowing with critical race theory.”
“I found it astounding that it teaches kindergartner-year-old children — and I’ve got grandchildren — they teach them that they can choose their gender,” Blackburn said. “So, is this what you were praising when you applauded the ‘transformative power of Georgetown Day Schools’ — progressive education? Do you agree that our schools should teach children that they can choose their gender?”
Blackburn then asked Jackson if she had ever heard concerns from parents about critical race theory being taught at the school or about certain books in its curriculum while serving on the Georgetown Day School Board.
“No Senator, no one ever mentioned it,” Jackson said. “Georgetown Day School is a private school. It’s not a public school.”
Senators asked Jackson a wide range of questions during the second day of her confirmation hearings. She was hard-pressed with questions regarding her judicial philosophy, her record as a former federal public defender, and the sentences she delivered as a District Court judge in Washington.
All of the panel’s Republicans except Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) signed and sent a letter to Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) asking him to adjourn proceedings until he provided them the information on Jackson’s history as a judge in criminal cases.
Some of the documents requested included the pre-sentence report for each case in which Judge Jackson handed down a sentence, minutes, and other records of the U.S. Sentencing Commission during her tenure as chair.
Their request met with dissent from Durbin, who asserted the documents contain highly sensitive, personal information about not only defendants but innocent third parties and victims as well.
“I would not want it weighing on my conscience that we are turning over these pre-sentence reports to this committee for the first time in history,” he said.
At one point, the judge said that if she is confirmed, she will not take part in a case before the court about the use of race in the admissions process at Harvard. Jackson, a Harvard Law grad, has been on the college’s board of overseers since 2016.
Wednesday’s session began with the remaining questions from two senators from the first round of inquiries. The hearings ended a few minutes before 8 p.m., having lasted for 10 hours.
While some Republican senators accused Judge Jackson of being soft on crime and avoiding questions about the expansion of the Supreme Court and being an activist judge, Democrat senators had a very different view.
“I am very proud to see you seated there and answering questions so intelligently,” said U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey). “You represent a lot of women in this country, and I am truly overjoyed that you have come this far.”
Democrats hope to move Jackson to a final confirmation hearing vote by early April.
