Biden’s SC pick: Experts testify on last day of hearings

Washington: President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court takes a step closer to being confirmed on Thursday after a bruising week of hearings in which Republicans attempted to discredit her record in criminal sentencing.

The opposition party had signaled it wasn’t up for a headline-grabbing fight over Kentanji Brown Jackson’s nomination but in the end she was subjected to almost 24 hours of sometimes brutal questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Judiciary Committee formally closes out the witness testimony portion of her confirmation Thursday with three lawyers speaking on behalf of the American Bar Association, which has given its highest rating -- "well qualified" -- to Jackson.

There will also be testimony from witnesses chosen by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including civil rights leaders, academics, lawyers, and anti-abortion and religious liberty advocates.

The day is expected to be less contentious than the midweek hearings, when several Republicans adopted the tone of prosecutors interrogating defendants. Ultra-conservative Tom Cotton of Arkansas suggested Jackson was lying under oath about not remembering the details of a hearing.

Fellow hard-right senator Josh Hawley of Missouri seized on a small portion of her sentencing history in a bid to sell the impression that Jackson was more sympathetic to pedophiles than the average judge.

Hawley pressed the 51-year-old appeals court judge on whether she regretted a "slap on the wrist" three-month sentence that she gave in one child porn cases. "What I regret is that in a hearing about my qualifications to be a justice on the Supreme Court, we’ve spent a lot of time focusing on this small subset of my sentences," Jackson replied. Democrats rallied to support the nominee, calling the line of questioning "reprehensible" and accusing the Republicans of looking for viral moments ahead of the midterm elections.