Playbook PM: Highlights from Jackson's questioning (so far)

From: POLITICO Playbook - Tuesday Mar 22,2022 05:15 pm

Mar 22, 2022

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Ketanji Brown Jackson speaking in front attendees.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks to senators during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, March 22. | Francis Chung/E&E News/POLITICO

After Monday’s warm-up session of opening statements, this morning, Judge KETANJI BROWN JACKSON entered what Senate Judiciary Chair DICK DURBIN described as a “trial by ordeal,” with questioning from all 22 members of the panel. So far, seven of those senators have had their chance.

The committee is now on a break for lunch and will return around 1:30 p.m.

Here are some highlights from this morning’s questioning:

— On Roe v. Wade: “‘Roe’ and ‘[Planned Parenthood v.] Casey’ are the settled law of the Supreme Court concerning the right to terminate a woman’s pregnancy,” Jackson said. “They have established a framework that the court has reaffirmed.”

— On court-packing, Jackson repeatedly declined to wade into the issue: “My North Star is the consideration of the proper role of a judge in our Constitutional scheme. In my view, judges should not be speaking to political issues, and certainly not a nominee for a position on the Supreme Court.”

— On marriage rights for same-sex couples: Sen. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas) asked if Jackson agreed with him that the Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges (which found that “same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry”) creates “a conflict between what people may believe as a matter of their religious faith, and what the federal government says is the law of the land.” “That is the nature of a right,” Jackson replied. “When there is a right, it means that there are limitations on regulation, even if people are regulating pursuant to their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

— On claims that she has been lenient with sentencing in child sex abuse cases: “As a mother and a judge who has had to deal with these cases, I was thinking that nothing could be further from the truth,” Jackson said. “I impose a strict sentence and all of the additional restraints that are available in the law. These people [convicted in these cases] cannot use computers in a normal way for decades. I am imposing all of those constraints because I understand how significant, how damaging, how horrible this crime is.”

— On whether she thinks Supreme Court hearings should be televised: “I would want to discuss with the other justices their views and understand all of the various potential issues related to cameras in the courtroom before I took a position on it.”

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The most explosive moments from this morning came from LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.), who used a substantial portion of his time to lament the treatment of Justice AMY CONEY BARRETT during her confirmation process.

GRAHAM: “What faith are you, by the way?” JACKSON: “Senator, I am Protestant. Non-denominational.” GRAHAM: “How important is your faith to you?” JACKSON: “Senator, personally my faith is very important. … It’s very important to set aside one’s personal views about things in the role of a judge.”

Then Graham turned it up: “On a scale of 1-10, how faithful would you say you are in terms of religion?” Jackson responded: “Senator, I am reluctant to talk about my faith in this way just because I want to be mindful of the need for the public to have confidence in my ability to separate out my personal views.”

Graham continued: “Well how would you feel if a senator up here said, ‘your faith, a dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.’ … Would you find that offensive? I would if I were you. I found it offensive when they said it about Judge Barrett. … You’re reluctant to talk about it because it’s uncomfortable. Just imagine what would happen if people on late-night television called you an ‘effing nut speaking in tongues’ because you’ve practiced the Catholic faith in a way they couldn’t relate to or found uncomfortable. So, judge, you should be proud of your faith. I am convinced that whatever faith you have and how often you go to church, it will not affect your ability to be fair. … Judge Barrett, I thought, was treated very, very poorly, so I just wanted to get that out.”

Graham’s questioning later turned to her work representing Guantánamo Bay detainees, and an amicus brief she filed during her time at a law firm that challenged Bush-era detention policies. The topic produced a tense back-and-forth between Graham and Jackson in which the senator attempted to get an explanation of whether she agreed with the challenge. The context, via NYT’s Charlie Savage

It’s safe to say Graham left unsatisfied. Here’s what he told CNN’s Manu Raju after exiting the room for a break: “Graham emerged from hearing and said it’s ‘fair to say’ he sees red flags with [the] Jackson nomination. He criticized her explanation of defending Guantanamo detainees as an attorney. ‘It just doesn’t make sense to me,’ he told me.”

Graham also lamented that J. MICHELLE CHILDS, a judge from his home state, had not been selected as the nominee, claiming that progressives torpedoed her chances in favor of boosting Jackson.

— Worth noting: Graham was one of three Republican senators who voted to confirm Jackson to her post on the D.C. Circuit.

In a brief moment of levity this morning, Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the committee, welcomed Jackson to the chamber again: “I got home last night at about 8 o’clock, and the first thing I heard was my wife’s opinion that you did very good in your opening statement. She didn’t have anything to say about my statement.”

Two sharp observations from NYT’s Annie Karni:

— “During Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings , Republican Senators tried to underscore how brilliant she was by noting that she answered questions with only a blank notepad in front of her. Judge Jackson also appears to be speaking without notes today.”

— “Many of these white, male Republican senators seem to be aware of the optics of grilling a Black woman and are going out of their way to note how gracious, informed and charming they have found her to be personally. Then they launch into partisan attacks that seek to present her as an extremist.”

Still to come this afternoon: Republicans MIKE LEE, TED CRUZ, BEN SASSE, JOSH HAWLEY, TOM COTTON, JOHN KENNEDY, THOM TILLIS and MARSHA BLACKBURN. Democrats AMY KLOBUCHAR, CHRIS COONS, RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, MAZIE HIRONO, CORY BOOKER, ALEX PADILLA and JON OSSOFF .

We’re not even halfway through, so buckle in for a long day with the Judiciary Committee and follow along here with POLITICO’s coverage of the marathon hearing all day.

Good Tuesday afternoon.

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WAR IN UKRAINE

— “Ukraine said it retook a strategically important suburbof Kyiv on Tuesday, as Russian forces squeezed other areas near the capital and pressed their attack on the embattled southern port of Mariupol,” AP’s Nebi Qena and Cara Anna report from Kyiv.

— All 23 members of the House Intelligence Committee are asking U.S. officials to declassify information that could show evidence of war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, Nahal Toosi reports . … The bipartisan letter

EXPLAINER: “Could Biden's aid to Ukraine face political blowback? | 6 things to know”

MOSCOW ON THE POTOMAC — If you want to know which sanctioned Russian entities are lobbying in D.C., don’t expect to find much. “For years, Russian entities registered to lobby under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, rather than registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, according to public filings. They were able to do so so long as a foreign government or political party was not the ‘principal beneficiary’ of the lobbying effort. As a result, those Russian entities were able to influence U.S. policy without disclosing details with the Department of Justice about the scope of their outreach,” Hailey Fuchs writes.

NAVALVY GIVEN NINE MORE YEARS — A Russian court sentenced imprisoned opposition leader ALEKSEI NAVALNY to nine years in prison today — “widely seen as a move by the Kremlin to keep Mr. Navalny behind bars beyond the expiration in 2023 of his current two-and-a-half-year prison term,” NYT’s Anton Troianovski and Valeriya Safronova write.

RIPPLE EFFECT — “Ukraine War’s Spillover Swamps Poor Countries Still Reeling from Covid,” by WSJ’s Saeed Shah in Islamabad, Nazih Osseiran in Beirut and Nicholas Bariyo in Uganda

THE PANDEMIC

A NEW TESTING SHORTAGE? — U.S. health officials are warning that the country could soon find itself with a shortage of Covid tests as cases surge in some areas. “The Biden administration estimates that the testing market will remain stable until the early summer, but rapidly falling demand for once-popular at-home Covid-19 tests is leading some manufacturers to cut back,” David Lim reports . “‘If we get to a point where companies really are turning off lines or laying off people — are not making investments in the Covid test market — and we have another surge, then we will not be ready to go,’ TOM INGLESBY, White House senior adviser for Covid response, told POLITICO. ‘We will be in a situation that is potentially much worse than what we had with Omicron.’”

WATCHING OUR WASTE — “Wastewater sampling … at hundreds of sites nationwide is once more drawing closer scrutiny from epidemiologists worried the spread of what appears to be a yet-more-contagious version of Omicron, known as BA.2, and rising cases in Europe could soon spoil the latest U.S. recovery. The number of wastewater sites indicating virus increases on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dashboard has risen in recent weeks, though the majority of sites still show declining levels,” writes WSJ’s Brianna Abbott and Jon Kamp.

ALL POLITICS

PROGRESSIVES EYE OUSTER IN OREGON — Progressives have identified a new primary target: Oregon Rep. KURT SCHRADER . “Top liberal groups and figures including Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (Mass.), the Working Families Party and Indivisible are looking to oust the 13-year incumbent from Congress. They’ve lined up behind JAMIE MCLEOD-SKINNER, a school board member from central Oregon who’s challenging Schrader from the left, in what could become the next marquee Democratic House primary to watch,” Holly Otterbein reports. “There are signs that McLeod-Skinner could have an opening: Her campaign has conducted an internal poll, first shared with POLITICO, that shows her trailing Schrader by only 3 percentage points. But in a race that will be judged as a test of the left’s strength, Schrader also has considerable advantages — chief among them, his enormous financial lead over McLeod-Skinner.”

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MEDIAWATCH

BUZZFEED ANNOUNCES BUYOUTS — In its first earnings report as a publicly traded company, BuzzFeed said it “expected revenue to decline in the current quarter, and it is reducing its workforce by 1.7%,” WSJ’s Alexandra Bruell writes. “BuzzFeed founder and Chief Executive JONAH PERETTI said on Tuesday’s earnings call that the company was looking to boost profitability at its news division, BuzzFeed News, by reducing head count and giving priority to ‘coverage of the biggest news of the day, culture and entertainment, celebrity and life on the internet.’ BuzzFeed News Editor-in-Chief MARK SCHOOFS said in a note to staff Tuesday that he was leaving the company.” The company is “looking to reduce head count through voluntary buyouts,” per the WSJ.

PLAYBOOKERS

MEDIA MOVE — Tom Namako is joining NBC News Digital as executive editor. He currently is deputy editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed, and is a WSJ and N.Y. Post alum.

TRANSITIONS — Catherine Lenz is now director of health policy at the Picard Group. She previously was senior health policy adviser for Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas). … Leacy Burke is joining Milliken & Company as government relations manager. She currently is comms director for Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). … Jeff Guittard is now senior manager of comms at the Beer Institute. He previously was deputy press secretary for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). …

… Stephen Wieroniey is now senior manager of government relations at the Huntsman Corporation. He previously was director of product advocacy for ACC's Plastics Division and Center for the Polyurethanes Industry. … Loni Mahanta is now VP of policy and government affairs at OpenSea. She previously was a nonresident fellow in economic studies at Brookings.

BONUS BIRTHDAY: Public Agenda’s Andrew Seligsohn