Source: United States Senator for Delaware Christopher Coons
WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered opening remarks on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. This is the first of four days of committee hearings on Judge Jackson’s nomination.
To Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Senator Coons said, “Your rich, complex, and deep decisional record gives us the best possible evidence of what kind of Justice you will be, and I’ve concluded you are judicious and impartial—great qualities for a Justice.”
Senator Coons concluded, “one of the most memorable sentences before this was in talking to your brother, Ketajh, who said, ‘Oh. I’m not surprised to be here at all. This was the sort of thing for which my sister was destined from the very start.’ Destined perhaps, but today you are beginning a process of walking through this door because of courage, humility, determination, and a commitment to excellence. Just as another person in American history, Ruby Bridges, walked through a critical door in our history, with her chin held high, her back held straight, and a fierce determination to make a difference, so you too today begin the process of walking through this next open door with the sort of sparkling wit, brilliant mind, and commitment to excellence that will make its mark in American history.”
Full audio and video available here. A transcript is provided below.
Sen. Coons: Thank you, Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Grassley.
Judge Jackson, congratulations on your nomination. It is a joy and a blessing to welcome you and your family and your supporters here this morning. As both Senators Klobuchar and Cruz have laid out in great and forceful detail, the decisions of the United States Supreme Court have daily impact, regular bearing on the lived experience of Americans. That is, in part, why hearings for this important role are so contentious.
I have been looking forward to this day since President Biden announced her nomination in February. And over the next several days, members of this committee will have the privilege of helping introduce you to the American people, so that they can gain the sense of confidence that I have in your values, your skills, your competence, and the necessity of confirming you to Supreme Court. We’ll be inviting you to speak directly to the American public and share the lived experiences, the strong qualifications, the judicial temperament, and the strength of character that made you not only an historic nominee to the Supreme Court, but an outstanding one as well.
I want to acknowledge upfront that President Biden selected you to fill the seat on the Court being vacated by Justice Breyer—a Justice whom I admire and, in the work he’s done as a jurist over decades, has shown us a model of a Supreme Court Justice. In his 42 years on the federal bench, 30 years on the Supreme Court, he’s lived up to the highest ideals of American jurisprudence. He has served with wisdom, with fairness, and respect for the Constitution, the laws of our nation and its people. He has a keen legal mind and love of law that are obvious to anyone who has heard him ask questions or read his decisions, and certainly to someone who has clerked for him on the Supreme Court and who has the benefit of his mentorship over many, many years.
You’ve had broad experience in your stellar legal career that will make you a unique contributor to the Supreme Court. You’ve worked as a lawyer or as a judge in just about every level of our legal system—engaging in just about every area of federal law. Your experiences as a private practice attorney with large law firms, as a federal public defender, as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission in your near decade of service as a federal judge have giving you insights into the ways that our Constitution, our statutes, our sentencing guidelines, and judicial decisions all come together to directly impact individuals, families, and our community.
You’re able to perceive the full sweep of our law without losing sight of the human beings, the individuals, and families impacted by it caught up in it. And, it is critically important in my view that we have Justices on the Supreme Court with this practical and proximate view.
You began your legal career with the invaluable experience of clerking for judges at the federal district court, at the circuit court, and for Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court—judges appointed by presidents of both parties. You developed your career as a legal advocate in private practice, and in the Federal Public Defender Service. As part of this work, you took on complex cases involving challenging and unsettled areas of the law. You worked pro bono on behalf of clients without regard to their political views or the political consequences of those cases. And, you helped ensure bedrock constitutional guarantees in our legal system held strong, even in times of great stress and crisis. The work you did in these roles distinguished you as a talented appellate litigator with a formidable legal mind.
You helped to craft policy as counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the independent agency within the judicial branch that establishes sentencing guidelines, followed by all federal judges and then years later, you served again on the commission as its vice chair. While on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, you partnered with colleagues whose perspective on the law span the ideological spectrum and together, you enacted meaningful reforms designed to reduce unjust disparities and increase fairness in sentencing.
In the days ahead, I expect to discuss your Sentencing Commission experience with you in some detail. Nearly all the decisions you were a part of while serving on the commission were unanimous, and they grew out of careful consideration of highly complex and numerous factors that involve commissioners working hard to achieve common ground. And in at least one notable instance, you ended up joining two conservative commissioners to oppose an amendment because you thought the law required a different result, and you followed the law.
Something that often gets lost in our debates and discussions about the Supreme Court is that many and in some terms a majority of Supreme Court decisions are unanimous or decided by very broad majorities. These decisions are every bit as critical to the rule of law and the functioning and legitimacy of the court as the handful that are very continuous and widely discussed publicly. Your service on the Sentencing Commission and your time on the circuit court have prepared you to be a positive force for consensus among the justices in this challenging chapter in American history.
I also think we will have some extended discussions this week about your record of service on the federal bench. You were confirmed to the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia in 2013 and have written more than 500 published opinions. You were confirmed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year. And in your near decade as a judge, you’ve authored opinions in cases spanning a myriad of complicated issues from administrative law to civil rights, from criminal and environmental matters to labor and employment law, national security and sovereign immunity, immigration law, and many more.
Your rich, complex, and deep decisional record gives us the best possible evidence of what kind of Justice you will be, and I’ve concluded you are judicious and impartial—great qualities for a Justice.
In every case, you methodically consider the parties’ arguments, the relevant facts, and the law—including, of course, the foundation of the Constitution, the text of applicable statues, and the precedents that apply. And ultimately, from what I’ve seen, you come to decision based on that methodology; not on any particular policy preferences or activism.
This committee has also received a striking outpouring of support for your nomination from a very broad range of sources. I’m certain we’ll be hearing about some of the more enthusiastic statements and detail in the coming days. But in several of the letters I’ve had a chance to review personally, I’ve been struck. These were letters from lawyers that appointed positions in Republican administrations, letters from prominent law enforcement organizations, federal judges appointed by Republican presidents. They praise your qualifications, your character, your experience, and your commitment to even-handed and impartial judging and the role of law.
This is the fourth Supreme Court nomination process in which I’m participated as a senator, and I know our role in confirming a justice to the highest court is among the most solemn obligations we have as senators.
As we begin this week’s hearings, I remain hopeful that we can come together as a committee and engage in respectful, good faith, and bipartisan consideration of your nomination. I look forward to your testimony this week. I’m excited so many of my colleagues have had a chance to get to know you bit, to meet with you, to talk with you one-on-one, and get a sense of your character, your experiences, your background, and then we’ll have the opportunity to question you to bring that out in more detail.
I have every expectation that at the end of this week’s hearing it will be clear to all that you are impeccably qualified in the law, and I think it will be plain to any American watching, you have a demonstrated record of excellence, as a juror, you will decide cases as a Justice on the basis of facts and the law, and that you will be faithful to the constitution.
It is also my hope that folks will get to meet the family that shaped you. It was delightful to have a few moments to get to talk with your parents and your brother before we began today and to reflect on how having parents—graduates of HBCUs, public school teachers who then went on to great careers of accomplishments—Johnny Brown Esquire and Dr. Ellery Brown set a great standard.
But frankly to me, one of the most memorable sentences before this was in talking to your brother, Ketajh, who said, “Oh. I’m not surprised to be here at all. This was the sort of thing for which my sister was destined from the very start.” Destined perhaps, but today you are beginning a process of walking through this door because of courage, humility, determination, and a commitment to excellence. Just as another person in American history, Ruby Bridges, walked through a critical door in our history, with her chin held high, her back held straight, and a fierce determination to make a difference, so you too today begin the process of walking through this next open door with the sort of sparkling wit, brilliant mind, and commitment to excellence that will make its mark in American history.
I look forward to your opening, and to this week. Thank you, your honor.
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