GOP Sen. Susan Collins will vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson, giving bipartisan support to a historic Supreme Court nominee
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson faced the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first in a series of high-profile confirmation hearings.WASHINGTON – Republican Sen.
, all but guaranteeing Jackson's confirmation. The Senate is evenly split, with 50 Democratic caucus members and 50 Republican members. Jackson needs a simple majority of 51 of the 100 senators to be confirmed. Manchin to vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson, likely ensuring she will be the first Black woman on Supreme Court
Collins' announcement means there won't be a tie vote that Vice President Kamala Harris would need to break. More Republicans could come out in support of Jackson, like Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska or Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who said Tuesday he had yet to make a decision. voted yes on her appointment to her current federal court role. Graham's aggressive questioning and remarks during the confirmation hearing, however, suggest he is unlikely to support Jackson this time around.
Their initial one-on-one meeting lasted more than an hour and a half, during which Collins said she asked Jackson about a decision she made that was overturned by the circuit court., Republicans pressed Jackson on her record sentencing defendants in child porn cases and as a federal public defender representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
"This is the approach that I plan to continue to use for Supreme Court nominations because it runs counter to the disturbing trend of politicizing the judicial nomination process."