Supreme Court: Republicans grill Ketanji Brown Jackson as Trump Jr attacks on Twitter

Justice Clarence Thomas was absent from the Court on Wednesday as he battles an infection. Few details have been released about his condition, other than that he has tested negative for Covid-1, and a statement describing his symptoms as “abating”.

The justice was set to be released from the hospital Tuesday evening, but the Court did not confirm on Wednesday if that had occurred.

Read more from The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander:

White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had no comment to reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday when she was asked about criticism from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee directed at Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She was asked by journalists whether it was the view of the president that Republicans had crossed a line into “inappropriate” or even “racist” attacks on Ms Jackson’s career and background.

“I’m not going to get into specifics on that at all,” she said, dismissing the questions.

In 2016, Ketanji Brown Jackson’s daughter 11-year-old daughter wrote to then-President Barack Obama and laid out a case for naming her mother to the nation’s highest court, as Mr Obama was determining who he would pick to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

The letter paints a portrait of the justice’s daughter Leila as a sharp, politically-active youngster; she was in the Senate this week as Mr Obama’s former VP, Joe Biden, took her advice and her mother now faces historic confirmation hearings for an appointment to the nation’s highest court.

Read more from The Independent’s Nathan Place:

Sen Dick Durbin rebuked a second Republican member of the committee on Wednesday as the contentious confirmation hearings of Ketanji Brown Jackson continued.

GOP members of the committee have badgered Ms Jackson on a number of issues including her past rulings in cases involving defendants accused of possessing child pornography; after the hearing resumed Wednesday afternoon, Sen Ted Cruz caused Mr Durbin to bang his gavel repeatedly when his lengthy questioning ran over the 20-minute time allotment.

"You can bang it as loud as you want,” Mr Cruz exclaimed. Mr Durbin then turned questioning over to Sen Chris Coons, and quipped to Mr Cruz: "At some point, you have to follow the rules."

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmed to Sen Ted Cruz on Wednesday that she would recuse herself from a case determining whether Harvard discriminated against Asian-Americans in their admissions policies.

Mr Cruz questioned Ms Jackson about general themes that the case touched on, including which situations a plaintiff could sue a school for such a reason. He also asked if she would recuse herself from the Harvard case specifically, given her service on Harvard’s Board of Overseers.

“That is my plan,” she responded.

Sen Mitt Romney was a rare GOP voice in the chorus condemning some Republican lawmakers for their questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Apparently referring to criticism of her judicial record by Sens Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, Mr Romney quipped to reporters: “There’s no ‘there’ there.”

“It struck me that it was off course, meaning the attacks were off course that came from some,” said Mr Romney on Tuesday.

His comments did not appear to register with the two senators, who continued their attacks on Ms Jackson for her sentencing of defendants convicted of possessing child porn. Democrats have repeatedly pointed out that Ms Jackson’s sentences fell well within norms for federal judges.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearing erupted into another back-and-forth between Democrats and Republicans on the committee after Sen Ted Cruz interrupted Sen Mazie Hirono and demanded time to enter a letter from some of his Senate colleagues on the record.

Mr Cruz could easily have entered such a letter during his own time; it was unclear why he chose to insist on doing so during Ms Hirono’s testimony. The Texas senator went over on his own question time as well; as a result, the tongue-lashing he received in response was his second rebuke from Democrats of the day.

Sen Pat Leahy ended the exchange by quipping how much he knows that Mr Cruz loves “getting on television”, while adding that he and other lawmakers had waited their own turns for hours and would call for the rules of the committee to be respected.

Mr Cruz was spotted by one reported browsing reactions to the exchange on Twitter seconds after it occurred on his phone.

Republican senators continued their efforts to drag the line of questioning away from Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s judicial record and legal philosophy on Wednesday as day three of her confirmation hearings played out.

One of Wednesday’s examples of this phenomenon occurred when Sen Marsha Blackburn asked for Ms Jackson’s biological definition of a woman. Ms Jackson countered that she was not a biologist, and left such questions to experts.

“Can you provide a definition for the word, woman?” Blackburn asked. Ms Jackson responded: “Can I provide a definition? No, I can’t.”

When Ms Blackburn pressed for her reasoning, she added: “Not in this context - I’m not a biologist...In my work as a judge what I do is I address disputes.”

Sen Ben Sasse ridiculed the “jackassery” that he said occurred around the Senate on Wednesday as Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearing continued.

Mr Sasse did not name any of his colleagues, but his own remark echoed that of Sen Pat Leahy, who directly accused Texas Sen Ted Cruz of trying to get on television by interrupting one of his Democratic counterparts and demanding that a document be added to the record during her allotted time.

“Jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people looking for short-term camera opportunities,” he told Ms Jackson while commenting about his opposition to cameras in the Supreme Court.

Sen Cory Booker launched into an impassioned defence of Ketanji Brown Jackson after a day of relentless grilling from Republicans that at times verged away from her judicial record and philosophy.

Telling the judge, “God has got you”, Mr Booker said that Ms Jackson was overwhelmingly qualified and even drew a teary response from the judge.

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