Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will meet with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Tuesday, a key meeting for President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee.
Graham is one of three GOP senators, along with Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), who voted for Jackson’s nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, making him a vote to watch in the Supreme Court fight.
Graham and Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) were also the only two Republicans to vote to advance Jackson in the evenly divided Senate Judiciary Committee last year. Though a tie in committee wouldn’t sink Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination, it would add extra steps to getting her confirmed.
Graham, a current member and former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has been more supportive of Biden’s district and appeals court nominees than most other GOP senators, except Murkowski and Collins.
But he’s viewed as likely to oppose Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination after lobbying hard for another potential pick, South Carolina District Judge J. Michelle Childs.
“If media reports are accurate, and Judge Jackson has been chosen as the Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice [Stephen] Breyer, it means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again. The attacks by the Left on Judge Childs from South Carolina apparently worked. I expect a respectful but interesting hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Graham said shortly after Biden settled on Jackson as his nominee.
Graham had also previously warned that picking a nominee besides Childs “would be problematic.”
But Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and No. 2 Senate Democrat, said on Monday that he isn’t giving up on ultimately being able to pick up Graham’s vote. Durbin said he hadn’t spoken with Graham in roughly a week but planned to.
“I’m going to sit down with him. I’m sure he’ll be honest with me. … I don’t pressure him. He’s come around and helped me on many, many occasions. But I want to sit down and talk to him. … I want to see if he’s at least open to at least a conversation,” Durbin said.
“He’s been good. I have to tell you as a Republican voting for judgeships he’s been exceptionally good,” Durbin added.