Sasse to vote no on Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse (Neb.) announced Friday he would not be voting to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

Sasse, a member of the Judiciary Committee, pointed to Jackson not clearly labeling her judicial philosophy in his decision to vote “no” on her confirmation.

“Judge Jackson is an extraordinary person with an extraordinary American story. We both love this country, but we disagree on judicial philosophy and I am sadly unable to vote for this confirmation,” Sasse said in a statement.

“Judge Jackson has impeccable credentials and a deep knowledge of the law, but at every turn this week she not only refused to claim originalism as her judicial philosophy, she refused to claim any judicial philosophy at all,” he added.

Sasse joins Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in announcing a vote against Jackson.

His decision comes after Jackson was questioned by the Senate for hours this week, fielding questions from both Democrats and Republicans. 

Some Republicans focused on Jackson’s record regarding her sentencing on child pornography cases and used the high-profile hearings to discuss critical race theory. 

“Like so much of our public square, the Supreme Court confirmation process is broken and doesn’t build trust in either the Senate or the Supreme Court. Senators should have made fewer speeches, and Judge Jackson should have made her judicial philosophy clear and understandable to the American people,” Sasse stated. “Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.”

Jackson’s nomination needs to first get through the Judiciary Committee, where an 11-11 tie between Republicans and Democrats could happen. If that happens, extra procedural steps are required when the vote gets to the whole Senate, adding hours of time to the process.