Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, on a separate issue, the Senate voted on a bipartisan basis to invoke cloture on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the DC Circuit. Today, the Senate will confirm her to that post.

Judge Jackson is the first of many circuit court nominees whom we will confirm during this Congress. Given her credentials and record on the bench, she is a nominee who deserves the support of Senators on both sides of the aisle. I would like to take just a minute to highlight why she is such an outstanding choice for the DC Circuit.

The importance of the DC Circuit cannot be overstated. This is what another Illinoisan, President Barack Obama, said about the court: ``The D.C. Circuit is known as the second highest court in the country, and there's good reason for that. The judges on the D.C. Circuit routinely have the final say on a broad range of issues involving everything from national security to environmental policy; from questions of campaign finance to workers' rights. In other words, the court's decisions impact almost every aspect of our lives.''

Thankfully, in Judge Jackson, we have a nominee who will be ready from day one to serve justice as a member of the DC Circuit.

Judge Jackson was born here in Washington, DC, and raised in Miami, FL. Her parents, public school teachers at the time of her birth, gave her a lifelong appreciation of learning and the law. They also instilled in her a dignity and grace that was on full display, as the Presiding Officer knows, when the judge appeared before the Judiciary Committee in April.

A champion high school debater, Jackson later attended Harvard and Harvard Law School before embarking on what can only be described as a star-studded legal career.

She clerked on the Federal District Court, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and for Justice Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court--a strong resume in and of itself. She has also worked at several prominent law firms, handling both trial and appellate work.

But her true calling has always been public service. In the early 2000s, Judge Jackson worked as special counsel on the U.S. Sentencing Commission and later served as a Federal public defender in Washington, DC. This experience inspired President Obama to nominate her to serve as Commissioner and Vice Chair of the Sentencing Commission. In the Senate, her nomination received unanimous support.

A few years later, Judge Jackson came before the Senate again when President Obama chose her to fill a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia--once again, she was confirmed with unanimous support.

Looking at the arc of Judge Jackson's career, I am struck by how much time she spent focusing on the issue of criminal sentencing--an issue deeply important to me and, I believe, many other colleagues.

From the Sentencing Commission to the Office of Federal Public Defender, to the district court, Judge Jackson has grappled with legal, intellectual, and moral challenges that come with sentencing policy and decisions. Once confirmed, she will bring that vital experience to the DC Circuit.

I also want to speak more broadly about her record on the bench. She represents the best of the judiciary. Humble, hard-working, she has written nearly 600 opinions, and each of them is guided by the same principles: fairness, impartiality, evenhandedness, and an unyielding fidelity to the law. It is no surprise, then, that she received the grade of unanimously ``well qualified'' from the American Bar Association, and it is no surprise that she has the support of legal experts and advocates from different ideological and professional stripes, including Judge Thomas Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee to the DC Circuit; the Alliance for Justice; the National Council of Jewish Women; the AFL-CIO; the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; and dozens--literally dozens--of former prosecutors and other Justice Department officials appointed by Presidents of both political parties.

Let me close with a passage from a letter Judge Griffith wrote in support of Judge Jackson. I read this letter during her hearing, and it really stuck with me. Judge Griffith wrote: ``Although she and I have sometimes differed on the best outcome of a case, I have always respected her careful approach and agreeable manner, two indispensable traits for success in a collegial body.''

Madam President, we will all benefit from that careful approach and agreeable manner on the DC Circuit.

I will vote for Judge Jackson's nomination to the DC Circuit and urge my colleagues to do the same.

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