Senators can’t get a firm yes or no out of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson when it comes to the issue of court-packing. Jackson even invoked previous nominee and current Justice Amy Coney Barrett in her dodge.
“Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) posed the court-packing question to Jackson during the second day of her Senate confirmation hearing by suggesting that Barrett had said that she ‘could not opine’ on the issue when she appeared before the committee in October 2020,” the New York Post reports.
“I agree with Justice Barrett and her response to that question when she was asked before this committee,” Jackson said.
“My North Star is the consideration of the proper role of a judge in our constitutional scheme,” she added. “In my view, judges should not be speaking to political issues, and certainly not a nominee to the Supreme Court.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the committee, pressed Jackson on the issue.
“Grassley pointed out that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer — for whom Jackson clerked and would replace on the high court if confirmed — both spoke out publicly in recent years against expanding the court and argued it would alter the public’s perception of it as a non-political body.,” NYP reports.
“You say this question should be left to Congress as a policy issue,” Grassley told her. “I reiterate sitting Supreme Court justices have spoken on that matter, so I don’t think it would be inappropriate for you to do so, if other people sitting there have said it is a bad idea.”
“Respectfully, Senator, other nominees to the Supreme Court have responded as I will, which is that it is a policy question for Congress, and I am particularly mindful of not speaking to policy issues because I am so committed to staying in my lane of the system, because I am just not willing to speak to issues that are properly in the province of this body,” Jackson said.
SCOTUS pick Jackson won't say whether she backs court-packing push https://t.co/og58VAFIJ2 pic.twitter.com/xXwLt6w76P
— New York Post (@nypost) March 22, 2022
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