Georgia's Ossoff, Warnock back Jackson for Supreme Court
Georgia Senators to vote to confirm Biden SCOTUS nominee
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has earned the support of both of Georgia’s U.S. Senators in her historic nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Democratic U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock have announced that they will vote to confirm Judge Jackson to the nation’s highest court.
A D.C. circuit court judge, President Joe Biden nominated Jackson to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. If confirmed, Jackson would be the first Black woman to ever sit on the court, and only the third Black Justice in the court’s history.
Sen. Ossoff made the announcement Tuesday in an interview with Atlanta radio station V-103. “I will be voting to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,” Ossoff said. He described her an “extraordinarily qualified legal mind.”
Ossoff is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the panel of Senators that must examine and question Jackson’s nomination before she can face a vote from all 100 Senators.
During her confirmation hearing, Democrats highlighted her qualifications and emphasized the history that she would make if confirmed.
Republican Senators focused more on culture war topics such as critical race theory and transgender athletes. Some also criticized her for handing down lenient sentences in child pornography cases.
Sen. Warnock revealed on Friday that he will support Jackson’s nomination. In a statement from his office, Warnock praised Judge Jackson as a “brilliant jurist who will ensure justice and uphold fairness.”
Warnock also took note of the history that is being made.
“As the pastor of Dr. King’s spiritual home, and the father of a young Black girl, seeing my daughter watch Judge Jackson step into this moment is witnessing the moral arc of history bend before our very eyes. It fills me with great pride for our country, how far we have come, and what we can achieve.”
The announcements from Ossoff and Warnock are not surprising. Since taking the majority, Senate Democrats have made it a priority to confirm President Biden’s slate of judicial nominees.
An analysis from the New York Times found that 40 of Biden’s judicial nominees were confirmed by the Senate in 2021, the most in a President’s first year since Ronald Reagan.
It also serves as an important reminder of Georgia’s role in this confirmation process. If Republicans had won the January 2021 Senate runoffs, it would be Mitch McConnell deciding the fate of Jackson’s nomination. But because Ossoff and Warnock won, it’s Chuck Schumer who gets to make that call.
The Judiciary Committee is set to vote on Jackson’s confirmation next week, with a full Senate vote expected shortly thereafter.
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