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Floor Speech
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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, throughout 2 days of questioning in front of the Judiciary Committee on which I sit, Judge Jackson proved, without a shadow of a doubt, what we all knew to be true: She is eminently qualified to serve on the Supreme Court of our country.
Judge Jackson has the intellect, the integrity, and the temperament befitting an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and she doesn't have an ideological axe to grind. Judge Jackson is exceptionally qualified and well regarded across the political spectrum.
And yet not a single Republican voted to advance Judge Jackson's nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and only three Republicans have publicly expressed support for her.
So I ask my Republican colleagues: What is it going to take? What is it going to take to put politics aside to support a nominee like Judge Jackson? Because, clearly, intelligence, extraordinary breadth of experience, and support from prominent conservatives--conservatives-- did not suffice. Clearly, a candidate who has support from organizations from across the political spectrum--from the Black and Hispanic U.S. Chambers of Commerce to the National Education Association, with thousands of teachers; to the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union--they would not be supporting somebody who is soft on crime--to child advocacy groups that would not be supporting her, either, if she was not being appropriate in her sentencing of child pornography defendants. So even with this breadth of support, she didn't make the cut with the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee. So, clearly, a nominee who was uniformly called ``brilliant,'' ``beyond reproach,'' ``first rate,'' and ``impeccable'' by her colleagues across the Nation was not enough.
So, truly, what will it take?
Sadly, some of my Republican colleagues resorted to unfounded and misleading attacks in an unsuccessful attempt to smear her character. To highlight how ridiculous the attacks around the sentencing of child pornography offenses were, I asked Judge Jackson about the history of the sentencing guidelines for these crimes and the concerns that these guidelines do not reflect what is happening with child pornography offenses.
And these facts bear repeating. A decade ago, the U.S. Sentencing Commission first addressed the issue of sentencing in this area. Even way back then, only 40 percent of convicted offenders were receiving sentences within the guidelines. Now, 10 years later, even fewer offenders are receiving sentences within the guidelines. In 2019, just 30 percent of non-production offenders were sentenced within the guidelines. In the DC Circuit, in which Jackson served, the average goes down to just 20 percent of offenders. This puts Judge Jackson well within the mainstream in her sentencing in this area. She is not an outsider.
I named numerous other judges nominated by President Trump and supported by the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who have also sentenced offenders to sentences well below the sentencing guidelines. So these judges also expressed concern about how the sentencing guidelines do not reflect the circumstances in the child pornography cases of today.
I will repeat this. Judge Jackson is a mainstream judge. She has issued decisions and sentences similar to other judges across the Nation, including those nominated by both Republicans and Democratic Presidents. Despite some of my Republican colleagues' attempts to distort the truth to get more likes on Twitter, what Americans across the country saw was an incredibly impressive, highly qualified individual demonstrate that she has the intellect and the temperament to serve on our highest Court. Throughout the course of this week, Americans also learned about her character.
I was particularly moved to hear the testimony of an individual who has known Judge Jackson for nearly 38 years--when they were in elementary school. He said, in part:
Ketanji's incandescent brilliance was obvious to all of us from day one. But even more importantly, she has always been one of the kindest, warmest, most humble and down-to-earth people I have ever met. All this, while still possessing boundless charisma, drive, maturity, and grace.
These qualities, apparently from a young age, have clearly guided her throughout her life and her career, particularly when it comes to treating every single person she encounters with dignity and respect.
During the hearing, I asked Judge Jackson the same two questions on sexual assault and harassment that I ask of all nominees--male and female. In follow-up questioning, I named judges who had committed such misconduct and asked Judge Jackson what she does to ensure her court is a safe and inclusive place to work. After Judge Jackson's hearing concluded, a woman who had clerked for one of the judges I named who had engaged in this kind of harassing behavior reached out to me. And this is a person who had clerked for one of the judges that I had named. During her clerkship with this judge, she endured extreme and pervasive sexual harassment. She came forth publicly about this judge's conduct, an experience she described as ``a harrowing ordeal.''
She went on to a second clerkship, this time for Judge Jackson. In Judge Jackson's court, she said, she was treated like a valued and talented employee who could make meaningful contributions to the law. She says clerking for Judge Jackson was the most meaningful professional experience she has ever had. She stated:
Judge Jackson is the reason I am still a lawyer. I have no doubt I would have left the profession were it not for the way she treated me the year after my ordeal.
Judge Jackson is exactly the kind of judge and individual we need on the U.S. Supreme Court: experienced, evenhanded, with dignity, integrity, and humanity. Moreover, Judge Jackson is not just extremely qualified to serve on the Supreme Court; her nomination is a historic one.
The Supreme Court has existed for over 233 years, and of the 115 Justices in the history of the Court, only 5 of them have been women, only 2 have been Black, and not a single one has been a Black woman. This is the Court that has decided cases that have had sweeping impacts on our lives, including decisions that have solidified rights for LGBTQ-plus people, empowered women, strengthened unions, and more. But this is also the same Court that has throughout the course of history upheld slavery, Jim Crow, and the unlawful internment--incarceration-- of Japanese Americans in World War II.
So it is about time. It is about time we have a highly qualified, highly accomplished Black woman on the Supreme Court. It is about time our highest Court better reflects the country it serves. It is about time that Black women and girls across the country can finally see someone who looks like them sitting on the highest Court, making decisions that will impact their lives--our lives. And they will know that the possibility is there for them.
I close by noting that during the hearing, Judge Jackson told the committee that as a freshman at Harvard, she wondered whether she could fit in or whether she could make it, and a Black woman she didn't know leaned into her as they were walking by, probably in Harvard Yard, and said to Judge Jackson--she wasn't a judge then: ``Persevere.'' That is something that a lot of us can relate to: perseverance, including myself, who came to this country as a poor immigrant kid, persevering to learn the language, to learn the culture of a country I knew nothing about. Judge Jackson being on the Supreme Court would send such a powerful message of perseverance to everyone in this country.
I will be honored to vote to confirm Judge Jackson. I look forward to calling her Justice Jackson.
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