Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing: Day 1

The Senate Judiciary Committee kicked off confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson today.

During her opening statement, Jackson thanked God and her family for their support, and assured senators that she takes her "duty to be independent very seriously.”

Senators on the committee also delivered opening statements, providing a preview of what to expect over the next couple of days as Jackson faces questions from lawmakers.

Democrats celebrated the historic nature of Jackson's nomination and praised her unique experience and legal record.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin’s opening statement emphasized the groundbreaking nature of Jackson's nomination to the highest court.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar highlighted the important role justices play on rulings that impact every day people.

“Like Americans who are one Supreme Court decision away from losing their health insurance, or one court decision away from the ability to make their own health care choices, or the Dreamers who could lose the only country they've ever known,” Klobuchar said, alluding to the previous Supreme Court cases that dealt with the Affordable Care Act and immigration policy.

Jackson’s public defender experience, according to Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, helps her “understand our justice system uniquely, through the eyes of people who couldn't afford a lawyer.”

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s opening statement was a particularly poignant reflection of the unprecedented moment. The committee’s sole Black member described the hearing as "not a normal day for America. We have never had this moment before."

Republicans, meanwhile, used their opening statements to focus on past contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings, namely Justice Brett Kavanaugh's process.

The very beginning of the opening statement from Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committee’s top Republican, was call back to those hearings, with him recounting how his opening remarks were almost immediately interrupted by protestors.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Republicans “couldn’t go back to our offices during Kavanaugh without getting spit on.”

Promising that Jackson’s hearings won’t be a repeat of the ugliness of the Kavanaugh fight, Graham referred specifically to the sexual assault allegations put forward about the judge in late summer 2018.

Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas also rehashed past Supreme Court hearings which they viewed as politically motivated and noted that Jackson's record on crime are "fair game" during the hearing process.

Cruz said that “part of the Democratic effort to abolish the police is nominating justices that consistently side with violent criminals, release violent criminals, refuse to enforce the law and that results in jeopardizing innocent citizens,” and so questions about that are “fair game.”

What to expect tomorrow: Senators from both sides of the aisle will have an opportunity to question Jackson on her experience. Day 2 of the hearings begin at 9 a.m. ET.

Listen to a recap of today's hearing here and read about possible topics Jackson will be grilled on this week here.

After the hearing, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin explained why Democrats didn't defend their record on judicial nominees after Republicans excoriated their party — namely over the 2018 confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault and which he furiously denied.

Durbin told CNN there was a reason why they didn't push back today.

Asked if he regretted his party's handling of the Kavanaugh nomination, the Illinois Democrat said:

"Listen, we all learn from life experiences. I hope you do. I do. Some of these were in our control and some out of our control. I don't want to relive that history. I think we're pushing forward with an eye to the future."

Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator who is serving as nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's "sherpa" during the confirmation process, said he dosen't expect her to address Republican questions about court-packing, a issue that will almost certainly be raised in the days to come. 

“I don't think any judicial nominee should be talking about legislative policy,” Jones said. “Everybody understands that the size of the Supreme Court is an issue for this body, for the Congress. It is not for the court, and I don't think you will see any nominee to address that.” 

On criticisms from Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn about the defendants Jackson represented when she was a public defender, Jones replied, “I think when you hear Judge Jackson talking about her time, and how it informed her as to being a judge and being able to talk, I think she will answer Senator Blackburn pretty well.”

Asked about Republicans calling Jackson soft on crime, Jones said that, “it's going to be very simple for her to make the argument because she's going to point to her record.”

More specifically, on Sen. Josh Hawley’s remarks on her sentencing record in cases involving child sexual abuse images, Jones said, “given his tweets and his statements, it was not surprising. We expected those and she will be able to talk about each one of those cases.”

Overall, Jones said he was pleased by Monday's hearing.

“This is the kind of respectful hearing that you always want, in these confirmation hearings,” he told reporters. “Today was a really great day, a really great start.”

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson told senators that she takes "my duty to be independent very seriously.”

Jackson called her judicial role “limited” and “constrained.”

While acknowledging the hundred of written decisions she penned can be long, she said “that people should know precisely what I think and the basis for my decision.”

Her experiences in law have “instilled in me the importance of having each litigant know that the judge in their case has heard them, whether or not their arguments prevail in court.”

At least two GOP senators invoked another notable Black jurist during their opening statements Monday, using left-wing resistance to Janice Rogers Brown in 2003 to make the case that potential opposition to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson isn't about race.

In 2003, Brown, who was then a California state Supreme Court judge, was nominated by then-President George W. Bush to a Washington-based US appellate court long regarded as a steppingstone to the Supreme Court. But Democrats, including then-Sen. Joe Biden, stalled her nomination for nearly two years and effectively ensured she was shunned in 2005 when Bush had a chance to fill two seats on the high court.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said during the hearing that “we will see Democrats in the media suggest that any senator that is skeptical of your nomination, that questions you vigorously or that dares to vote against you must somehow harbor racial animus.”

“If that were the standard, I would note we are sitting on a committee where multiple members of this committee — the senior Democrats in the committee — happily filibustered Judge Janice Rogers Brown,” he added.

When Brown was confirmed, CNN reported that her opponents were particularly critical of her views on corporate liability and abortion rights. Then-Democratic Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois called her "one of President Bush's most ideological and extreme judicial nominees.” Durbin is now the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Brown’s nomination to the DC Circuit was also opposed by a litany of leading civil rights groups, including the NAACP.

“We would like to urge you in the strongest possible terms to vote against this nomination, which represents a regressive step in the historic struggle for civil and equal rights,” Hilary Shelton, the then-president of the NAACP’s Washington bureau, wrote to the committee in 2003.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson saved a "special moment" in her opening statement to acknowledge her daughters, Talia and Leila.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson recalled the mentors who helped her believe in herself, like Fran Berger, her high school debate coach.

Of Justice Stephen Breyer, the justice whom she clerked for and who she may replace, she said he “exemplifies what it means of the highest level of skill and integrity, civility, and grace.”

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said her father helped inspired her pursuit in law, during his study of law while she was a young girl.

“My very earliest memories are of watching my father study — he had his stack of law books on the kitchen table while I sat across from him with my stack of coloring books,” she said.

She noted the path her brother Ketajh took into public service as a police officer. As for her husband of 25 years, Patrick, who is a doctor and whom she met in college.

“I have no doubt that, without him by my side from the very beginning of this incredible professional journey, none of this would have been possible,” she said.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson emphasized the gratitude she felt, as part of her faith, and towards the sacrifices of her family.

She affirmed her thanks “to God, for it is faith that sustains me at this moment. "

Among her blessing, she was born “in this great Nation” in 1970, a decade after Congress enacted civil rights legislation.

“Like so many who had experienced lawful racial segregation first-hand, my parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, left their hometown of Miami, Florida, and came to Washington DC, to experience new freedom,” Jackson said.

She noted the long hours of work and sacrifice of her parents “to provide their children every opportunity to reach their God-given potential.”