Senate panel to vote on Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination

Senate panel to vote on Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme¹ Court nomination²

Transcript³

NPR's A Martinez speaks with SCOTUSblog reporter Amy Howe about Supreme Court nominee⁴ Ketanji Brown Jackson's possible influence on the high court, if the full Senate votes to confirm her this week.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Will Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court? A series of procedural meetings and votes this week in the U.S. Senate begin with a vote in the Judiciary Committee today that could end in a partisan⁵ deadlock⁶. But Jackson still could be confirmed by the full Senate later this week.

Amy Howe is a reporter with SCOTUSblog. And she's with us to explore the impact on the high court from a likely Associate Justice Jackson. Amy, all right, so let's start with the votes in the Senate. Any reason, any reason at all to think that Jackson will not be confirmed?

AMY HOWE: Not really. You know, the Democrats⁷ have 50 votes. And Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who is a Republican, has already announced that she will be voting for Judge Jackson. The only real question is whether or not they will be able to pick up any additional Republican votes. When Judge Jackson was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in 2021, two other Republicans who voted for her - Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Lindsey Graham has already said he won't be voting for her. But Lisa Murkowski hasn't said anything. So it's possible they may pick up another Republican vote or two. But it seems like a confirmation⁸, barring some really unforeseen development, is inevitable⁹.

MARTINEZ: Yeah. Kamala Harris owns the tiebreaker. So if the Democrats go 50 and...

HOWE: Exactly.

MARTINEZ: Yeah. So there that goes. All right. Now, we know that there is a solid 6-3 conservative majority on the court. Jackson was nominated to replace one of the three liberals, Stephen Breyer. So if that balance on the court, Amy, does not change, what influence will she have?

HOWE: So on a sort of big picture, it's not really clear that the substitution of a Justice Jackson for Justice Breyer is going to make any difference in the outcome of the big cases that the Supreme Court is expected to hear. You know, we've heard a lot about how she is going to be the first federal public defender¹⁰ on the bench. And certainly, as the first Black woman to be a justice, you know, it's going to be different than having Stephen Breyer, who's a white man, on the bench. And so you will see - you know, in the oral arguments and probably in her decisions, you'll see the influence. But in terms of the 6-3 conservative majority, you know, and in these big cases that the Supreme Court's going to hear next year, you know, she's not going to change the outcome of these cases the same way that having President Trump¹¹ nominate, for example, Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was one of the court's senior liberals in 2020, had on the balance of the court.

MARTINEZ: A lot of big issues, though, that could be ahead - cases on voting, immigration, abortion¹² rights. Jackson won't join the court until Breyer steps down after the current term. Will Jackson's judicial¹³ approach, or maybe, as she calls it, her methodology, have an impact?

HOWE: It's hard to say because we haven't seen her in action. And she talked about how, you know, she didn't have a philosophy...

MARTINEZ: Yeah.

HOWE: ...She had a methodology. But they've got, you know, three big cases already on the docket for next term. And so we're going to get a good look at how she works.

They have - coming up, they have a case involving the use of race in college admissions. And she is going to be recused from the case involving Harvard because she's currently on the university's board of overseers. But they can also reach the issue of whether or not colleges can consider race in admissions in a case involving University of North Carolina. That is already on the docket for the fall. There's a case involving the woman who owns a graphic¹⁴ design firm and wants to expand her business to include wedding websites. But she doesn't, for religious reasons, want to design websites for same-sex weddings. And she wants to post a message on her own website to explain that. But that would violate a Colorado antidiscrimination law. The justices have already agreed to take up that case. It's going to be on their docket in the fall.

And then they've got a big case involving the Voting Rights Act - a challenge to the map that Alabama is going to use in the 2020 elections. A lower court has said that it likely violates a provision of the Voting Rights Act that bars racial discrimination in voting. But the Supreme Court's going to hear oral arguments in that case as well. So we're going to get a really good look at how she operates in these cases quite soon.

MARTINEZ: Is there a sense at all of how different Breyer and Jackson may be?

HOWE: You know, we have - Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court has this sort of both simultaneously¹⁵ absentminded professor approach, where he asks these hypotheticals that can take up, you know, literally¹⁶ pages in the transcript, but then, at the same time, he's very interested in how the law works for ordinary people. He is the first one often at oral arguments to say, how are we going to write this? And so in that sense, you know, when you talk about Justice Jackson - you know, if her approach is to look at the facts and look at the law, she may also be, particularly as someone who was a district judge and a court of appeals judge and had to put these decisions into place, someone who's also very interested in how the law is going to work for real people.

MARTINEZ: That's Amy Howe with SCOTUSblog - Amy, thanks.

HOWE: Thanks for having me.

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

5 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

6 deadlock   

n.僵局，僵持

参考例句：

• The negotiations reached a deadlock after two hours.两小时后，谈判陷入了僵局。
• The employers and strikers are at a deadlock over the wage.雇主和罢工者在工资问题上相持不下。

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

9 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

10 defender   

n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人

参考例句：

• He shouldered off a defender and shot at goal.他用肩膀挡开防守队员，然后射门。
• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。

11 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

12 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

13 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

14 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

15 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

16 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。