Todd Young
WASHINGTON — Sens. Todd Young, R-Indiana, and Mike Braun, R-Indiana, have voted against confirming Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.
However, Jackson received enough votes in the Senate on Thursday to secure her place as the first Black woman on the high court and giving President Joe Biden a bipartisan endorsement for his historic pick, The Associated Press reported.
Three Republican senators — Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney —supported Jackson, who would replace Justice Stephen Breyer when he retires this summer.
Braun
While the vote was far from the overwhelming bipartisan confirmations for Breyer and other justices in decades past, it will still be a significant bipartisan accomplishment for Biden in the narrow 50-50 Senate after GOP senators aggressively worked to paint Jackson as too liberal and soft on crime, according to wire reports.
Young and Braun, for their part, announced earlier this week that they would vote against confirming Brown Jackson.
Young, who is seeking re-election this year, expressed concerns that Brown, in his view, doesn’t show a adhere to originalism, a concept that involves justices endeavoring to decipher original meaning of the Constitution and other texts in assessing whether someone’s rights have been violated.
“After carefully reviewing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s judicial record and statements, I will not be supporting her nomination. The role of a Supreme Court justice is to apply the law as written and uphold the Constitution, not legislate from the bench. Both Judge Jackson’s record and testimony during her confirmation hearings indicate that she does not adhere to originalism as her guiding judicial philosophy.”
Braun said he planned to vote against Brown Jackson because of what he perceived as her “activist judicial approach.”
“Today I met with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to keep my promise to treat this nominee with respect, and we had a good conversation,” Braun said in a statement on Monday. “I previously voted against Judge Jackson due to her activist judicial approach, and based on her record on the federal bench and her answers on issues raised in the committee hearings, I will vote against her nomination on that basis again.”
Story from Andy East, The (Columbus) Republic.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
