WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden (L) looks on as Ketanji Brown Jackson, circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, delivers brief remarks as his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court during an event in the Cross Hall of the White House February 25, 2022 in Washington, DC. Pending confirmation, Judge Brown Jackson would succeed retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and become the first-ever Black woman to serve on the high court: Drew Angerer/Getty

By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, will begin on March 21, the chair of the committee announced Wednesday.

Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, revealed the timetable and was joined by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, in urging Republicans to consider voting for Judge Jackson even though nearly all of them voted against her confirmation last year for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

“She deserves support from the other side of the aisle,” Schumer said, calling the nominee “amazing” following a private session with her just off the Senate floor. “I am hopeful that a good number of Republicans will vote for her, given who she is.”

Judge Jackson, 51, has been confirmed by the Senate three times before, most recently in June, when the vote was 53-to-44 to confirm her to the appeals court. She received three Republican votes.

Working with former Alabama Senator Doug Jones, who is acting as sherpa to help her wind her way through the confirmation process, she began meeting with senators this week.

Participants typically tend be tight-lipped about details of the discussions in these courtesy meetings, but Jones said the first day went well.

“It was a very good day,” Jones told reporters, saying that the sessions, “very, very pleasant meetings,” so far had focused on her personal background as well as what he called her “impeccable credentials.”

“This was a really good start,” Jones said. “And we have been anxious to get this process going, and today was a good day to get it started.”

Like others in both parties, Jones said he expected the upcoming hearing to be less toxic than recent confirmation battles, particularly the controversial hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Harvard frat boy appointed by then-President Donald Trump, who you may recall testified he liked to drink beer and have sex with young girls when drunk. He put on a dramatic show of being outraged by the sexual assault charges against him after Trump said and tweeted that he should stand up for himself.

“I think it’s going to be very respectful, regardless of what may have happened in the past,” Jones said. “That’s a testament I think to her as much as anything.”

Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, met with Judge Jackson on Wednesday afternoon, and said his goal was to “have a fair … dignified process.”

“I just think that we’re going to meet our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent with dignity and fairness and most importantly, thoroughness,” he said.

Judge Jackson also met with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican Senator from Kentucky, who has questioned what he calls her “thin” appellate record from her year on the appeals court as well as her backing from progressive activists who have called for expanding the nine-member court or making other changes to dilute the influence of its six-member conservative majority.

“One has to wonder why these left-wing organizations worked so very hard to boost Judge Jackson for this potential promotion,” McConnell said on Tuesday before his meeting with the nominee, since she has a fair and moderate reputation and record.

Republican votes are not assured. Once routine, strong bipartisan support for a Supreme Court nominee has become a thing of the past as the partisan political divide has invaded the judicial system. Changing that dynamic will require Democrats and the first Black woman ever nominated to the court to mount a persuasive case that she is highly qualified and merits a court seat — even if Republicans see her as “too liberal.”

These days the tea party, Trump Republicans see anyone left of Antonin Scalia as “too liberal.”

Believing that the judge is her own best advocate, Durbin said she would be available to all members of the Judiciary Committee before the coming hearing as well as other lawmakers who want one-on-one meetings. One Republican who may be a potential vote for Judge Jackson is Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who voted to confirm her last June. Collins is scheduled to meet with the judge next week.

“It is absolutely essential that I sit down and interview her,” Collins said on Wednesday.

Durbin said he had reached out to a handful of other Republican senators who he thought also might vote to confirm. An extensive questionnaire that the White House returned to the judiciary committee on Monday should help Republicans get a full picture of Judge Jackson, as it details her opinions in more than 500 district court cases and a wealth of other information.

“For those who want to know who she is and how she thinks, we have lots of evidence,” Durbin said.

The 24 days between the president’s announcement of Jackson’s nomination and the start of her hearing is about half the time of most nominations in the recent past. Republicans set a new precedent of 16 days, however, when they rushed through the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett just before the 2020 election.

“It is tough for them to argue,” Durbin said, that “we are doing anything particularly different.”

Following the usual practice in such high-profile confirmations, Durbin said the first day would be devoted to Judge Jackson’s opening remarks and those selected to introduce her, and hearing from the 22 members of the Judiciary Committee. Senators will then question Judge Jackson over the following two days. Durbin said he hoped to conclude the hearing on March 24 after testimony from outside witnesses.

If all goes according to plan, the schedule will allow for a full Senate vote on the nomination before a two-week Spring Break recess scheduled to begin on April 8. Acting by that date remains the goal of Senate Democrats even though Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the justice Judge Jackson would replace, might not formally retire until this summer, when the Supreme Court’s current term ends.

“There’s no reason to wait,” Durbin said.

Though they are increasingly hopeful of winning at least some Republican support for Judge Jackson, Democrats are determined to see her confirmed regardless.

“She belongs on the court,” Schumer said.

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