by Sophie Mann at Just the News
The Senate Judiciary Committee began confirmation hearings Monday for Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s first Supreme Court nominee, and in her opening statement, she spoke about her humble beginnings and thanked President Joe Biden and God.
Democratic lawmakers attempted to quell the assumption that the judge will behave as a “rubber stamp” for the agenda of President Joe Biden, while Republican senators alluded to the judge’s history of defending Guantanamo Bay prisoners and exacting light sentences on offenders in child pornography cases.
“I’m thankful for the confidence that President Biden has placed in me and for the kindness that he and the first lady and the vice president and the second gentlemen have extended to me and my family,” she said.
She also gave thanks to God. “For it is faith that sustains me to this moment,” she said.
Jackson spoke about her family and the support her parents, who were public school teachers, gave her along the way.
“When I was born here in Washington, my parents were public school teachers, and to express both pride in their heritage and hope for the future, they gave me an African name; ‘Ketanji Onyika,’ which they were told means ‘lovely one,'” she said.
“My parents taught me that, unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, such that if I worked hard and believed in myself, in America I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be,” Jackson told the senators.
The opening day of Jackson’s hearing occurs as a current member of the bench, Justice Clarence Thomas, remains hospitalized after experiencing flu-like symptoms. Thomas is being treated with intravenous antibiotics and is expected to be released in a day or two. His hospitalization did force him to miss Monday morning arguments at the Supreme Court.
In her opening statement…
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