South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham — who voted just last year to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — has now declared her an “activist judge” and says he will vote against her confirmation to the Supreme Court.
According to The New York Times, Graham gave a lengthy presentation Thursday from the Senate floor in which he described Jackson as dangerous and motivated by progressive bias.
“Here’s where we’re at in 2022,” Graham said. “The only person qualified to go to the Supreme Court as an African American woman is a liberal. You can be equally qualified as a conservative, but you need not apply because your ideology disqualifies you.”
He also called her an “evasive witness” during her confirmation hearings, adding, “I now know why Judge Jackson was the favorite of the radical left.”
Graham was one of only three Republican senators who supported Brown Jackson’s 2021 elevation to the D.C. Circuit Court, so his new stance presents a 180-degree turn. The New York Times noted this is not the first time Graham has made a complete about-face in his opinion: In 2016, he was a vocal critic of then-candidate Donald Trump, only to become one of Trump’s most diehard supporters after his election as president.
The South Carolina lawmaker appeared on the Senate floor Thursday with large slides about child sexual abuse, a topic that came up frequently during Jackson’s recent confirmation hearings as Republicans frequently accused her of being soft on crime.
Graham’s new position is of little surprise as he was aggressive in his line of questioning during Jackson’s confirmation hearings. He frequently interrupted the jurist and even used profanity, saying “put their a** under the jail” when referring to people who view child sex abuse images. At one point, Graham even stormed out of the hearings.
Judge Jackson is expected to be confirmed to the high court as Democrats hold a majority at 50 seats and Vice President Kamala Harris could break a tie. The latter may not be necessary as Senator Susan Collins of Maine has said she plans to vote to confirm Jackson on Monday, April 4.
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