Ketanji Brown Jackson Replies to Sharp GOP Queries

Topics aired Tuesday included her decisions on child-pornography cases, the abortion-rights precedent in Roe v. Wade, her sentiment on the academic concept known as critical race theory and whether her judicial philosophy reflected a will to remake the law in ways that go beyond the Constitution as understood when drafted.

Barring unforeseen revelations, little stands in the way of confirmation of Judge Jackson, the first Black woman to be picked for the Supreme Court. The Senate’s composition is unchanged since last year, when three Republicans joined all 50 Democrats and independents to confirm her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “They are grasping at straws,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii) of Republican challenges to the nominee.

The judge rebutted GOP suggestions that she was too easy on accused criminals, saying she had been acting primarily as a public defender in representing Guantanamo Bay defendants and had later been assigned by her law firm to write a brief defending their rights.

She treaded carefully around attempts by Sen.

John Cornyn

(R., Texas) to pin her down on whether she would seek to expand existing federal rights by deciding that some rights were implied in the Constitution. She said that under Supreme Court precedents, “the kinds of things that qualify are implicit in the concept of ordered liberty or are deeply rooted in our country’s history and tradition.”

“I wish we had a more candid conversation about the source of the power that unelected lifetime-tenure judges have to basically rule America,” Mr. Cornyn said.

One of President Biden’s stated criteria for any nominee was that she hold an expansive view of individual rights that extends beyond those specifically listed in the Constitution, a stance with repercussions for topics like abortion and same-sex marriage. Responding to Sen.

Mike Lee

(R., Utah), Judge Jackson said she hadn’t discussed with Mr. Biden the Ninth Amendment, which states that people may retain rights beyond those specifically enumerated.

Democrats’ first order of business Tuesday was to give Judge Jackson a platform to rebut allegations first made by Sen.

Josh Hawley

(R., Mo.), who on Monday criticized her for imposing what he said was a series of lenient criminal sentences against child-pornography offenders—citing seven such cases in which he said she handed down sentences below what U.S. sentencing guidelines suggested.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Judge Jackson said in response to initial questions on the matter from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D., Ill.). The judge, a mother of two daughters, said she had properly applied the relevant statute. “That statute doesn’t say ‘impose the highest possible penalty for this sickening and egregious crime,’ ” she said.

When on Tuesday evening Mr. Hawley asked her about sentencing, Judge Jackson said she had been “attempting to take into account all of the relevant factors and do justice individually in each case.”

Mr. Hawley responded: “I’m not questioning you as a person. I’m not questioning your excellence as a judge….I’m questioning how you used your discretion in these cases.”

Sen.

Cory Booker

(D., N.J.) said it was wrong to imply that Judge Jackson, who has family members who work in law enforcement, doesn’t take public safety seriously.

“I sat here and was a little insulted about the accusation” that her sentences were too lenient, he said of some of his GOP colleagues’ comments.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) pressed Judge Jackson on critical race theory, which holds that the legacy of white supremacy remains embedded in modern society through laws and institutions that were fundamental in shaping America. He noted that the judge sits on the board of Georgetown Day School, a private school whose recommended reading list includes “Race Cars,’ described as a book about white privilege, and Ibram X. Kendi’s “Antiracist Baby.”

The judge said she wasn’t aware of the books assigned or recommended by the school. “I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist or though they are not valued, or though they are less than; that they are victims, they are oppressors,” Judge Jackson said. “I don’t believe in any of that.”

The school is closed for spring break and representatives didn’t respond to emails.

Judge Jackson’s hearings this week haven’t been as contentious as recent ones, largely because her presence on the Supreme Court wouldn’t change its ideological makeup.

On Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established a constitutional right to an abortion, Judge Jackson said that the decision was settled law and that the courts, when revisiting past precedents, should consider how those rulings had been relied upon. The high court is currently considering whether to narrow or abolish constitutional protections for abortion rights, a decision expected by the end of June.

Sen.

Lindsey Graham

(R., S.C.) claimed that Democrats had previously smeared Amy Coney Barrett—who later would be one of former Republican President

Donald Trump’s

three high-court nominees —over her Catholic religion, and said he was so angry that Mr. Biden had passed over Judge Michelle Childs of South Carolina for the post that he was having trouble with the current nomination.

“The fact that so many of these left-wing radical groups that would destroy the law as we know it declared war on Michelle Childs and supported you is problematic for me,” he said, addressing Judge Jackson.

Asked during a lunch break whether Mr. Graham, who last year voted for Judge Jackson’s nomination to the D.C. Circuit, could still be persuaded to vote for her again, Mr. Durbin said he needed to talk to his GOP colleague.

Judge Jackson referred to her personal history without dwelling on it. She mentioned, as she had a day earlier, that her experience growing up had been different from that of her parents, who attended racially segregated schools. Nodding to the value of a racially diverse judiciary in response to a question from Sen.

Dianne Feinstein

(D., Calif.), she said, “It supports public confidence in the judiciary when you have different people, because we have such a diverse society.”

Later, Mr. Durbin countered a contention from Mr. Cornyn that Judge Jackson had labeled as “war criminals” then-President

George W. Bush

and then-Defense Secretary

Donald Rumsfeld.

Mr. Durbin said in the course of representing Guantanamo Bay detainees, the judge had filed several petitions in which an individual alleged the government had sanctioned torture against that person, which would constitute a war crime.

“To be clear, there was no time when you called President Bush or Secretary Rumsfeld a war criminal,” Mr. Durbin said.

“Thank you, that was correct,” Judge Jackson replied.

Other Democrats, including Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) and

Patrick Leahy

(D., Vt.) used much of their allotted 30 minutes of questioning to heap praise on the nominee. And some Republicans struck a conciliatory tone. The committee’s top Republican, Sen.

Chuck Grassley

(R., Iowa), told the nominee that when he got home on Monday night, “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.”

From the sidelines, the Senate Republicans’ policy arm blasted out an email noting that Judge Jackson had declined to answer Mr. Grassley’s question about whether she opposed increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court, a move some progressives have favored.

Judge Jackson, 51 years old, sat through more than four hours of opening statements Monday from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The judge has already been confirmed by the Senate three times, including last year to a position on the D.C. Circuit. In her own opening remarks late Monday, she said she would “work productively to support and defend the Constitution and this grand experiment of American democracy,” adding that she “stood on the shoulders of so many who have come before me,” including Judge Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman appointed to the federal bench.

She also praised Justice

Stephen Breyer,

for whom she clerked and whose seat she will fill upon her expected confirmation.

Corrections & Amplifications
Ketanji Brown Jackson is President Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court. An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to her as Ketanji Jackson Brown in a headline. (Corrected on March 22).

—Jess Bravin contributed to this article.

Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com