| Advertisement |
March 25 (UPI) -- Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said on Friday that he plans to vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson -- virtually assuring that she will have enough votes to ascend to the nation's highest court. The West Virginia senator, who's often a swing voter in the upper chamber, said that he's met with President Joe Biden's nominee and closely examined her record.
Advertisement
"After meeting with [Jackson], considering her record, and closely monitoring her testimony and questioning before the Senate judiciary committee this week, I have determined I intend to vote for her nomination to serve on the Supreme Court," Manchin said, according to Axios.
"Her wide array of experiences in varying sectors of our judicial system have provided Judge Jackson a unique perspective that will serve her well on our nation's highest court."
Jackson, who would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, answered questions from the judiciary committee this week in hearings that, at times, became tense -- particularly when she was grilled by some of the more outspoken Republican members like Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas.
Many Senate Republicans have already promised that they won't support Jackson's nomination, including Graham, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.
The main theme of GOP opposition for Jackson is that she's too radical for the Supreme Court, her judicial track record is too soft on crime and she may be too political for a body that's expected to be apolitical.
In the final hearing on Thursday, representatives of the American Bar Association refuted claims that Jackson has been lenient in any way in sentencing criminals -- saying that they found no evidence that the accusation is true, or that she is politically biased.
Those Republican concerns, however, do not extend to Manchin -- who has often broken ranks and voted with Republicans on a number of Democratic bills, such as efforts to eliminate the filibuster, federal voting rights legislation and Biden's progressive $2 trillion spending plan known as the Build Back Better Act.
"I am confident Judge Jackson is supremely qualified and has the disposition necessary to serve as our nation's next Supreme Court Justice," Manchin said, according to The Washington Post.
Manchin added that Jackson's experience -- from public defender to district judge to appellate judge on the nation's second-highest court -- makes her an attractive and "exemplary" choice.
Manchin's announcement means that it's virtually assured that Jackson will be confirmed, as she needs only a simple majority in the Senate, or 51 votes. Democrats control the chamber and Vice President Kamala Harris, in her role as Senate president, would cast any tie-breaking vote.
Before 2017, nominees to the Supreme Court needed a supermajority -- at least 60 votes -- for confirmation. Senate Republicans, however, changed that rule five years ago to pass then-President Donald Trump's nominee, Neil Gorsuch, to the high court bench without Democratic support.
The only other Democratic senator believed to be a possible "no" vote for Jackson is Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who like Manchin has opposed a number of other Democratic efforts. She did, however, vote for Jackson on her nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last summer.
Sinema has not yet said specifically whether she will again vote to confirm Jackson in her Supreme Court nomination. She met Jackson one-on-one on March 10, but was noncommittal about her plans.
Jackson is Biden's first Supreme Court nominee. If confirmed, she will replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer after the court's current term ends in June.
