Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon.
Republican Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney joined all 50 Democrats in supporting Jackson.
“This is a wonderful day, a joyous day, an inspiring day for the Senate, for the Supreme Court and for the United States of America,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said prior to the vote. “Today is one of the brightest lights, and let us hope it’s a metaphor, an indication of many more bright lights to come.”
Sen. Murkowski said she was voting with the Democrats as a “rejection of the corrosive politicization of the review process for Supreme Court nominees.”
“My support rests on Judge Jackson’s qualifications, which no one questions; her demonstrated judicial independence; her demeanor and temperament; and the important perspective she would bring to the court as a replacement for Justice Breyer,” Murkowski said of her decision to vote with the Democrats. “It also rests on my rejection of the corrosive politicization of the review process for Supreme Court nominees, which, on both sides of the aisle, is growing worse and more detached from reality by the year.”
Vice President Kamala Harris presided over Senate during the vote.
“On this vote, the yays are 53. The nays are 47 and this nomination is confirmed,” Harris said.
Jackson will not immediately take the bench as Justice Stephen Breyer, the justice she is replacing, is not retiring until the end of the current Supreme Court’s term.
President Joe Biden watched the vote with Jackson in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, hugging when her confirmation passed.
Republicans have been critical of Jackson for being “soft on crime,” particularly due to her lenient sentencing in 100 percent of child pornography cases that she has presided over.
Jackson has presided over a total of 8 child-porn cases and cut the recommended sentence nearly in half in each case.
“Over and over, the records reveal, Jackson made excuses for the sex fiends’ criminal behavior and cut them slack in defiance of investigators and prosecutors — and sometimes even probation officers serving her court — who argued for tougher sentences because the cases were particularly egregious or the defendants weren’t remorseful,” the New York Post reported of the sentencings.
