Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, I rise to speak in support of the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. When confirmed, Judge Jackson, who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, will take the seat on the Supreme Court that Justice Stephen Breyer has held for almost three decades, so I would like to first offer a few words about Justice Breyer as he prepares to step down from the Bench.

Justice Breyer has served the Court and the Nation with grace, expertise, humility, brilliance, and an unwavering dedication to justice. He has worked tirelessly to build consensus among his colleagues, and he has always kept in mind the real-world impacts of the Court's decisions on the American people.

Justice Breyer knew that ``justice for some'' was a failure of the Court. From his opinions on voting rights to reproductive rights, to the Affordable Care Act, he has been a key voice in many historic decisions that have affected so many Americans. We owe him a great debt of gratitude. And I am honored and privileged to call Justice Breyer a dear friend, and I wish him the best in his retirement.

Now, in looking for Justice Breyer's successor, President Biden said that he wanted to nominate a ``persuasive'' Justice, someone in the mold of Justice Breyer, and with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden has found that person.

I am confident that Judge Jackson--who clerked for Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court--will follow in his footsteps as a Justice who will make a lasting contribution on the Court through her pragmatism, evenhandedness, and deep understanding of the Constitution and the impact that the Court's decisions have on all Americans.

And as the first African-American woman Justice on the Bench, Judge Jackson's historic nomination is an important and long overdue step toward making the Supreme Court better reflect the Nation whose people the Court serves.

Fifty-four years ago yesterday, our Nation, our world, lost the guiding light of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to assassination. That loss was incalculable. We can only imagine the society we would live in if Dr. King were still with us, preaching, marching, teaching, and I have no doubt that Dr. King would be on the steps of the Capitol as the loudest and proudest voice in support of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be our next Supreme Court Justice and the first Black woman to serve on our highest Court.

He would know that with the appointment and confirmation of Judge Jackson, we would take the long overdue step to make the Nation's top Court look more like and better represent all of the American people.

The legacy of the more just, more equal society that Dr. King pushed us to create is alive and it is well in this confirmation and on the floor and hearing rooms of the U.S. Senate this week.

The Judiciary Committee held 4 days of hearings on Judge Jackson's nomination, including 2 days of testimony from the judge herself. As we all saw, some of the questioning of Judge Jackson from some of my Republican colleagues was nothing short of offensive, distorting her record, and tinged with racism and sexism. But Judge Jackson responded with poise. She responded with brilliance. She calmly addressed and corrected her questioners' false and misleading premises.

And she did so while demonstrating deep knowledge of the law and the Constitution, respect for precedents, and displaying precisely the kind of temperament we expect of someone sitting on the Nation's highest Court.

The hearings showed the Nation that Judge Jackson possesses all of the essential qualities of a jurist committed to the words engraved above the entrance to the Supreme Court itself ``Equal Justice Under Law.''

Of course, to anyone who knew Judge Jackson before her introduction to the Nation as a Supreme Court nominee, none of this was surprising. Judge Jackson's qualifications to serve on the Supreme Court are second to none. She holds broad experience across the legal profession--as a Supreme Court clerk, as a Federal public defender, as an attorney in private practice, and as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, as a Federal district court judge, and as a Federal appellate judge.

It was, therefore, surprising to no one that she earned a unanimous ``well qualified'' rating from the American Bar Association. Let me speak for a moment about one aspect of Judge Jackson's background that stands out, and that is her experience as a public defender.

When confirmed, Judge Jackson will become the first-ever Justice with background as a public defender and the first Justice with significant criminal defense experience since the service of Justice Thurgood Marshall, who retired in 1991. That work as a Federal public defender has unjustly come under attack from my colleagues across the aisle who suggest that being a public defender means that she is soft on crime.

But my Republican colleagues--who far too often focus singularly on the constitutional right to bear arms--would do well to remember that among the Constitution's other enshrined rights is the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel in criminal cases. Without that right, criminal defendants who cannot afford an attorney would find it difficult or impossible to navigate the Court system with their rights protected, including the fundamental right to a speedy and fair trial.

My Republican friends may also want to consider that Judge Jackson comes from a law enforcement family, with a brother and uncle serving as police officers, and that she has won the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Nation's largest police union.

Now, let me remind my colleagues that public defenders do not select their client. They take on every assigned case because they are committed to preserving and defending constitutional rights for everyone. As a Federal public defender, Judge Jackson represented the most vulnerable among us. She represented the clients other lawyers avoided, and in doing so, she followed a long and honorable tradition in the American legal profession that began with John Adams stepping forward in 1770 to represent the British soldiers who committed the Boston Massacre because he feared that they would not receive a fair trial without adequate representation.

By confirming Judge Jackson, we will affirm that the rights of those who cannot afford a lawyer are just as important as the rights of those who can pay lawyers charging $1,000 an hour; that the rights of the indigent and powerless are just as important as those of the rich and the powerful.

Public defenders also experience firsthand and, therefore, understand better than other lawyers just how our justice system treats the accused, how it treats people of color, how it treats low-income people. Every day, public defenders see the systemic biases and prejudices that permeate our criminal justice system.

At a time when the United States holds more people behind bars than any other Nation on Earth--including authoritarian regimes like North Korea and China--the highest Court in the land would greatly benefit from a Justice with a public defender background. Public defenders serve as a unique bulwark of liberty and racial justice. So we should welcome a public defender on the Supreme Court, especially one as well qualified as Judge Jackson. Her singular perspective and voice are sorely needed.

Judge Jackson's service as a trial judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is also of particular note in this nomination. Only one of the current Supreme Court Justices--Justice Sotomayor--has ever served on a trial court. And as a trial court judge, Judge Jackson worked to ensure the parties before her understood her approach to deciding cases.

Judge Jackson has explained that, as a trial judge, she emphasized speaking directly to the individuals who appeared before her, not just to their lawyers. She used the parties' names and treated them with respect. She sought to ensure that those whom her rulings would directly impact clearly understood the proceedings in which they were involved, what was happening, and why it was happening.

This approach speaks to a judge who understands the importance of accessibility to the law, to a judicial process that isn't shrouded in mystery, and to a system that fulfills its promise of equal justice under the law to everyone. We will be fortunate to have such a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States.

I have had the opportunity to meet with Judge Jackson one-on-one. I came away deeply impressed and convinced that President Biden has made a great choice. The Senate has already confirmed Judge Jackson three times on a bipartisan basis--most recently in June of 2021, when she was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit. The Senate should again confirm her with bipartisan support.

And when Judge Jackson is confirmed and becomes Justice Jackson, the first African-American woman ever to take a seat on the High Court, she will be an inspiration to so many across our country and around the globe. She will especially be a role model for young Black girls everywhere, showing them that in the United States of America, nothing is beyond their reach.

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once said:

Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.

History says it is time for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and I am honored to help her and the Court and our country make history with her confirmation.

I urge all of my colleagues to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

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