华盛顿-最高法院提名人Ketanji Brown Jackson已经向参议院的确认迈出了第一步，回答了参议院司法委员会的书面问题，因为她准备在本周会见参议员。
预计拜登总统将在周二晚上的国情咨文中敦促她迅速确认，杰克逊将于周三在国会山会见参议院领导人，迅速启动这一进程。参议院民主党人希望他们能在4月中旬就她的确认投票，以取代退休的斯蒂芬·布雷耶大法官。
参议院司法委员会主席迪克·德宾周一表示，一旦收到杰克逊的调查问卷，该委员会将能够继续安排预计于3月中旬举行的听证会。委员会在星期五寄出了调查表，她在星期二之前寄回了调查表。
“我认为我们可以达到这种可能性，”德宾在四月中旬确认杰克逊时说。
如果得到确认，杰克逊将成为最高法院200多年历史中的第一位黑人女性法官。布雷耶曾表示，他不会离开法官席，直到今年夏天法院的会议结束，但民主党人不会冒险，以防他们50-50的微弱多数发生任何变化。副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯提供了决定性的一票。
在这份长达149页的问卷中，杰克逊透露，1月30日，也就是布雷耶宣布退休后的第三天，白宫首次联系了她。杰克逊去年被确认为美国哥伦比亚特区联邦巡回上诉法院的法官，他一直被视为拜登的最佳候选人，拜登曾承诺这一职位将由一名黑人女性担任。
她在问卷中说，杰克逊在2月11日与副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯进行了视频通话，然后在2月14日与拜登进行了面谈。2月24日，拜登打电话给她，并向她提供了提名，这是他公布决定的前一天。
该问卷为委员会提供了她担任的每一份工作的记录，以及她在担任联邦法官的九年中所做的决定，以及任何回避和潜在的利益冲突。参议员和工作人员将能够比其他候选人更快地审查这些信息，因为他们去年刚刚考虑过她在上诉法院的当前职位。在此之前，杰克逊是华盛顿联邦地区法院的法官。
杰克逊列出的她最重要的案件中只有一个来自上诉法院的新条目，描述了她为一个一致通过的三名法官小组撰写的支持工会的意见。
周三，杰克逊将开始在国会山的例行会议，她将在那里与两党成员会面。她计划首先会见参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默、参议院共和党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔。参议院司法委员会主席迪克·德宾·迪伊尔。和司法委员会最高共和党人爱荷华州参议员查克·格拉斯利。
德宾周一表示，尽管许多共和党人对杰克逊过于自由主义表示怀疑，但他仍希望赢得一些共和党人的选票。缅因州的共和党参议员苏珊·科林斯、阿拉斯加州的莉萨·穆尔科斯基和林赛·格雷厄姆南卡罗来纳州的共和党人是去年唯一投票支持杰克逊进入上诉法院的共和党人。
虽然柯林斯似乎愿意再次投票给杰克逊，但穆尔科斯基上周在一份声明中表示，她之前的投票并不意味着她这次会支持杰克逊。
格雷厄姆曾推动一个不同的候选人从他的家乡州，联邦地区法院法官米歇尔·查尔兹，并表示失望，她不是拜登的选择。
Jackson off to swift start on Supreme Court confirmation
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson has taken the first step toward confirmation in the Senate, answering written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee as she prepares to meet with senators this week.
President Joe Biden is expected to urge her swift confirmation in his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, and Jackson will meet with Senate leaders on Capitol Hill Wednesday, getting the process off to a quick start. Senate Democrats are hoping they can vote on her confirmation to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer by mid-April.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said Monday the committee would be able to move forward with scheduling hearings, expected mid-March, once they received Jackson's questionnaire. The committee sent the questionnaire on Friday and she returned it by Tuesday.
“I think we can reach that possibility,” Durbin said of confirming Jackson by mid-April.
If confirmed, Jackson would be the first Black female justice in the court’s more than 200-year history. Breyer has said he won’t leave the bench until this summer, when the court’s session is over, but Democrats are taking no chances in case there is any shift in their narrow 50-50 majority. Vice President Kamala Harris provides the deciding vote.
In the 149-page questionnaire, Jackson reveals that she was first contacted by the White House Jan. 30, three days after Breyer announced his retirement. Jackson, who was confirmed last year as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, had long been seen as Biden’s top candidate for the job, which he had promised would go to a Black woman.
Jackson met with Vice President Kamala Harris in a video call on Feb. 11 and then interviewed with Biden at the White House on Feb. 14, she says in the questionnaire. Biden called and offered her the nomination on Feb. 24, a day before he made his decision public.
The questionnaire provides the committee with a record of every job she has held and the decisions she has made in her nine years as a federal judge, as well as any recusals and potential conflicts of interest. Senators and staff will be able to vet that information much more quickly than they would have for other candidates since they just considered her last year for her current position on the appeals court. Prior to that, Jackson was a federal district court judge in Washington.
Jackson's list of her most significant cases contains only one new entry from the appeals court, describing an opinion she wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel that came out in favor of labor unions.
On Wednesday, Jackson will begin the customary meetings on Capitol Hill, where she'll make the rounds to members of both parties. She is scheduled to meet first with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel.
Durbin said Monday he’s still hoping to win some GOP votes for her confirmation, even though many Republicans have expressed skepticism that Jackson is too liberal. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska andLindsey Grahamof South Carolina were the only Republicans who voted to confirm Jackson to the appeals court last year.
While Collins has appeared open to voting for Jackson again, Murkowski said in a statement last week that her previous vote did not mean she would be supportive this time.
Graham had pushed for a different candidate from his home state, federal district court Judge J. Michelle Childs, and expressed disappointment that she was not Biden’s pick.
