The Senate Judiciary Committee has delayed the vote to approve Ketjani Brown Jackson for Supreme Court at the request of Senate Republicans.
According to reports, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., granted their request for a one-week delay in sending Jackson’s nomination vote to the full Senate for a vote. As such, her vote will be sent on Apr. 4, as she would need a majority approval in the committee of 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans to advance.
“I joined in the request to hold over the nominees for one week,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a Judiciary Committee Ranking Member, reportedly said. “I’ll have specific things to say about the nomination of Judge Jackson at that meeting, [one] week from today.”
Now, the committee is scheduled to report Jackson’s nomination to the Senate of 100 members on the new date, and it would hold a complete vote on her nomination by Apr. 11. By then, senators would be starting their spring break vacation.
The Senate Republicans’ vote has arrived after the 51-year-old’s confirmation hearings on Mar. 24, in which lawmakers interviewed her to potentially replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Breyer is set to retire later in 2022.
If Jackson is approved, she will become the first Black woman to take a seat on the over 200-year-old U.S. Supreme Court, which has been comprised of nine members.
Democratic Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) recently shared his thoughts about her confirmation hearings last week, following an emotional speech about the historic Supreme Court nominee.
He said Republican senators had “legitimate questioning” during the hearings. He also added, “But to me, it’s just about the kind of way we’re going to treat folk…And I think it’s a kind of thing that a lot of folks, women of all races, have had to endure often when they get into a room that they’re qualified to be in but are yet questioned in ways that are disappointing.”
