Ketanji Brown Jackson Vows To Be Nonpartisan In Supreme Court Hearing

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson vowed Monday in her opening remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee that she would be an impartial justice on the high court if she is confirmed.

“I have been a judge for nearly a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously,” Brown told members of the committee. “I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath.”

Jackson, 51, is currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a post she was confirmed to last year with bipartisan support. Her nomination by President Joe Biden is historic: She would be the first Black woman and first public defender on the Supreme Court.

Monday marked the first day of Jackson’s four-day confirmation hearing.

Jackson was joined Monday by friends and family, including her husband and two young daughters. She was introduced by Thomas Griffith, a conservative former U.S. appeals court judge appointed by President George W. Bush, and Lisa Fairfax, a former college roommate at Harvard who now teaches law.

Fairfax, who has been friends with Jackson for 35 years, called her “a woman of deep faith in God and unyielding love of family” and “the rock” for their circle of friends.

“Even though we are the same age, she is the role model who makes you believe in what she said: ‘You can do it, and here’s how,’” she said. “And she showed us how, by the power of her example of hard work, preparation and excellence that transforms the seemingly impossible into the achievable.”

“We knew early on that she could be anything she chose to be,” Fairfax added, “but also, that she seemed destined to be a judge because of her ability to see all sides and render fair and level-headed decisions.”