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Senators Signal Issues That Will Define the Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings

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Senators are signaling that they will home in on personal background, criminal sentencing and court-packing during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Jackson, nominated to replace retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, was first appointed to the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., in 2013 by President Barack Obama. President Joe Biden elevated her to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining all 50 Democrats in voting to confirm.

All 22 senators on the Judiciary Committee, including Graham, received 10 minutes to make opening statements Monday. Jackson herself spoke shortly after 3:30 p.m., emphasizing that as a Supreme Court Justice she would “work productively to protect and defend the Constitution.” . . .

If confirmed, Jackson would become the first black female justice on the Supreme Court. However, she would also be one of four justices to graduate from Harvard Law School, and one of eight justices to graduate from an Ivy League law school. Biden administration allies like South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, as well as Graham, suggested before Biden nominated Jackson that they would prefer a candidate like District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, who attended the University of South Carolina Law School.

“We’ve got to recognize that people come from all walks of life, and we ought not dismiss anyone because of that,” Clyburn said in January, expressing concern that the Court is becoming an “elite society.” (Read more from “Senators Signal Issues That Will Define the Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings” HERE)

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Clarence Thomas Hospitalized: ’Flu-Like Symptoms’

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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been hospitalized with an infection after reportedly experiencing flu-like symptoms.

According to a statement from the Supreme Court, the 73-year-old conservative justice was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC, on Friday evening.

“He underwent tests, was diagnosed with an infection, and is being treated with intravenous antibiotics,” the statement said. “His symptoms are abating, he is resting comfortably, and he expects to be released from the hospital in a day or two.” (Read more from “Clarence Thomas Hospitalized: ’Flu-Like Symptoms’” HERE)

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Senator Reveals Supreme Court Nominee’s Pattern of Going Easy on Child Sex Offenders

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A U.S. senator has revealed on social media what has been described as a “disturbing” agenda on the part of Joe Biden’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was picked by Biden because she met his qualifications of being black and female. . .

Sen. Josh Hawley’s investigation, which he said has been hindered because the Sentencing Commission “has refused to turn over all Judge Jackson’s records,” reveals Jackson’s affinity for going easy on offenders.

The editorial explained, “Joe Biden has proven he can REALLY pick ’em with his crap administration and now his questionable SCOTUS nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. We suppose when he made color and sex his priority for the pick (sort of like what he did when picking VP), he limited the pool.

(Read more from “Senator Reveals Supreme Court Nominee’s Pattern of Going Easy on Child Sex Offenders” HERE)

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Republicans Are Successfully Blocking Biden Nominees, and His SCOTUS Pick Could Be Next

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The Senate currently finds itself in the unusual situation of a tie – evenly split between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. As a procedural matter, a Senate tie requires some interesting maneuvering. A power-sharing agreement must be passed to hammer out how the majority-minority dynamics will play out. Also, in theory, the vice president must be on notice to break any tie votes that occur – something that would be happening a lot more if so many Republicans weren’t happily voting for so many of Joe Biden’s nominees. . .

This is how the Senate Judiciary Committee could block Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court from reaching the Senate floor. But it also applies in every other committee. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Small Business Committee Republicans have been using this strategy for months to hold up the confirmation of deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration over illegally disbursed Covid relief funds to Planned Parenthood. . .

Senate Republicans are primarily interested in Raskin’s lack of clarity in answers to committee questions related to revolving door issues, particularly how she used her influence following her tenure at the Federal Reserve and the Department of Treasury during the Obama years.

After leaving Treasury in 2017, Raskin joined the board of directors of the Reserve Trust Company, a financial technology (fintech) firm which provides payment processing and other services for business-to-business payment companies. While there, Raskin appeared to use her connections at the Fed to help secure Reserve Trust a Federal Reserve master account, making them the only nonbank fintech company to have access to the Fed payment system. (Read more from “Republicans Are Successfully Blocking Biden Nominees, and His SCOTUS Pick Could Be Next” HERE)

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Biden SCOTUS Pick: Judicial System ‘Unfair’ to Sex Offenders

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President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, acknowledged in a Senate confirmation questionnaire that she was the author of a paper published anonymously that charged the American judicial system was “unfair” to sex offenders.

The paper, which said sex offenders’ punishments had been “excessive,” “unfair and unnecessarily burdensome,” was titled “Prevention Versus Punishment: Toward a Principled Distinction in the Restraint of Released Sex Offenders.”

It was published in 1996 in the Harvard Law Review as a “note.” Jackson did not disclose her authorship until the Senate Judiciary Committee asked her to list published writings as part of her nomination, Just the News reported

She argued that courts had been “unable” to differentiate between “preventive” and “punitive” punishments for sex offenders. . .

“[E]ven in the face of understandable public outrage over repeat sexual predators, a principled prevention/punishment analysis evaluates the effect of the challenged legislation in a manner that reinforces constitutional safeguards against unfair and unnecessarily burdensome legislative action,” she wrote. (Read more from “Biden SCOTUS Pick: Judicial System ‘Unfair’ to Sex Offenders” HERE)

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Biden Announces His Radical Supreme Court Nominee

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President Joe Biden announced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his Supreme Court nominee Friday.

The president vowed to announce his pick before the end of February after Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his plans to retire. Biden reiterated his promise to nominate a black woman, and Jackson was long viewed as one of the front-runners.

Jackson is one of Biden’s most high-profile judicial nominees and was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2021. Three senate Republicans voted to confirm her at the time, with the confirmation coming in at a narrow 52-46 vote. She is the first black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court in the U.S. (Read more from “Biden Announces His Radical Supreme Court Nominee” HERE)

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Supreme Court Rejects Teachers’ Religious Exemption Appeal Over Vax Mandate

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The Supreme Court on Friday shot down an appeal from a group of New York City school teachers who sought to block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, arguing it violated their religious freedom.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected the emergency appeal on Friday, the same day as the deadline for city employees to comply with the mandate or face losing their jobs.

Sotomayor did not offer an explanation, which is the court’s usual procedure.

The appeal was filed Tuesday by 15 Department of Education workers, who claimed the city was violating their religious freedoms by not accepting their exemption claims.

The city requires that religious exemption requests must be backed up by religious leaders. For example, the teachers said the city would not accept an exemption from Catholics because Pope Francis had urged his flock to get their shots. (Read more from “Supreme Court Rejects Teachers’ Religious Exemption Appeal Over Vax Mandate” HERE)

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This Senate Rule Could Stop Democrats From Confirming Biden’s SCOTUS Nominee

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With Justice Stephen Breyer officially announcing his retirement on Thursday (a full 24 hours after the White House announced it for him), Senate Democrats will have a chance to fill a Supreme Court seat, likely before the 2022 midterm elections in November.

But ever since 2017, when Senate Republicans invoked the nuclear option to confirm Supreme Court justices at a simple majority, instead of at the usual 60 votes necessary to break a filibuster, there has been procedurally little minorities can do to prevent a nomination from moving forward (the outright lies, smears, and chaos tactics Senate Democrats employed against Justice Brett Kavanaugh notwithstanding).

This conventional wisdom, however, is true only of Senates that present a clear minority-majority differential. The Senate of 2022 is tied, with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, which presents Republicans with an interesting procedural option: denying a quorum in the Senate Judiciary Committee, thus preventing the nomination from being reported out of committee and placed on the calendar, and ultimately moved to the Senate floor.

In parliamentary practice, a quorum is the number of members that must be present to hold votes and conduct official committee business. By failing to show up to vote on the nomination in committee, Republicans could prevent the nomination from reaching the Senate floor by appealing to the Senate’s Rule 26, which requires that a majority of members, physically present, report the bill out of committee. (The Senate’s Rule 14, which allows senators to bypass committee consideration for legislation, cannot be used for nominations.)

What has made this strategy ineffective in the past — namely, a Senate majority being able to present a numerical majority of their members in committee — is what makes it work in 2022, where the Senate’s committee membership, reflecting the makeup of the Senate, is in a tie. (Read more from “This Senate Rule Could Stop Democrats From Confirming Biden’s SCOTUS Nominee” HERE)

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Coghill v. Bird: Constitutional Convention Debate Set for Feb. 1

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With the recent, quick and dismissive ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court over the blatant unconstitutionality of Ranked Choice Voting, we have officially entered the next stage of public discourse, naked judicial tyranny. In the past, there was some semblance of decorum and the facade of judicial impartiality. Some.. semblance. Over the last season of COVID they have now realized that the facade is unnecessary and the mask can come off. No one is watching the watchers and they know it, and they know that WE KNOW that they know it… and they simply do not care.

The sad fact is, I believe the corruption of Alaska politics is complete. The fix is in, and while we had already planned to host a constitutional convention debate, we had no idea the Supreme Court would wantonly disregard the actual State Constitution so quickly, flippantly in fact, as to reinforce the need for Alaska to begin this conversation. Our constitution CLEARLY spells out how we must elect our governor, and it is the job of the supreme court to adjudicate laws as abiding with, or repugnant to, our state constitution and rule accordingly. The reality is they no longer have to even pretend they believe that the constitution means what we say it means.

On February 1st, 7PM, John Coghill of Fairbanks, former Republican Alaska Senate Majority Leader and multi-term senator will square off against Bob Bird of Kenai, Chairman of the Alaskan Independence Party and Radio Talk Show host, at Valley Performing Arts in Wasilla. Special thanks to VPA for allowing the event at their facility during their spring schedule.

The debate will be Lincoln-Douglas style for an hour of moderated longform point and then formal rejoinder from the opposition. This will be an exercise in statesmanship and a battle of ideas, not the embarrassing, childish bickering we were all subjected to at our most recent presidential debates. At the end of the hour, there will be a 30-minute Q&A for guests to question presenters.

Worthy of note, these two gentlemen both align on the conservative side of the aisle, which is important for a nuanced discussion because while Bird believes a CON CON is truly the only option left to Alaskans, Coghill believes the risks outweigh the potential rewards. There is a case to be made for both sides. Were this simply a debate between the political left and right, it would likely sway no one, as politics there have largely devolved into memes and team sports thanks to the quick dopamine hits of social media and society’s reluctance to read.

Imagine if the political left were to have the courage face its own cancel culture and meaningfully argue with its own side… be a bit like watching Bill Maher say things with which you are totally shocked to agree.

One thing is for certain, we cannot wait until summer or fall to start fleshing out the need, the considerations, and the mechanisms for conducting a constitutional convention. This discussion must begin in earnest, NOW, so the people of Alaska have ample time to look around at our state and decide for themselves whether the gears of politics in Alaska grind slowly but effectively, or whether the gears have now bound up in the rust of corruption and must finally be fixed. There is much to consider and this decision cannot be made lightly.

Tickets to this lively debate are available here.

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Tucker: George Floyd’s Sister Is Biden’s Obvious Choice for Supreme Court

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. . .I will appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court. That was Biden’s promise. All right. But which Black woman exactly? Biden didn’t tell us. Biden didn’t mention the Supreme Court nominee’s legal qualifications or judicial philosophy or ability to perform one of the most important jobs in the country. He didn’t even tell us she was a nice person. All he said was she’s going to be Black and she’s going to be female, because to him, that’s all that mattered.

You almost got the impression that Joe Biden believes all Black women are the same. They’re identical. It was certainly the assumption in the Delaware of Joe Biden’s youth 60 years ago. Biden doesn’t seem to have changed much.

You wonder if anyone sitting there in CNN’s audience that night even noticed this. It’s possible we’ve all marinated for so long in the casual racism of affirmative action that it seems normal now to reduce human beings to their race. But imagine if this was happening to you. How would you feel? You go to law school, you win a clerkship, you get a seat on some lower court. One day you’re nominated to be one of the top nine judges in the country. And you’re proud of that. Why wouldn’t you? Your parents are proud. Your friends are proud. . .

So you have to wonder at this point since we’re going by skin color and gender, why Joe Biden is ignoring the obvious choice. Why doesn’t Biden strike a real blow for equity and just nominee Bridgett Floyd? Who’s that? Well, it’s George Floyd’s sister. She’s not a judge or a lawyer or whatever. But at this stage, who cares? Clearly, that’s not the point anymore. This law stuff.

As Nebraska Senator Roman Hruska once said in defense of one of Richard Nixon’s dumber judicial nominees “even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They’re entitled to a little representation, aren’t they?” Well, sure, they are, Bridgett Floyd could be justice for the rest of us. Or at least a slice of the rest of us. (Read more from “Tucker: George Floyd’s Sister Is Biden’s Obvious Choice for Supreme Court” HERE)

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