Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a potential Republican supporter of the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, said she wants to have a second meeting with Jackson before casting her vote.
Collins and Jackson met earlier this month when the nominee was making the rounds on Capitol Hill. If confirmed, Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
After West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced his support for Jackson late last week, it appears she has the support of every Democratic senator, which will enable her to win confirmation without a single Republican vote. However, the White House would prefer to see some Republican support for her nomination to the nation’s highest court. Collins, Utah's Mitt Romney and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski are the only Republican senators who could potentially vote to confirm Jackson.
According to Collins’ office, the senator plans to call Judge Jackson sometime this week to “clarify some of the issues that were raised at the hearing.”
During last week’s confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, several Republicans went after Jackson’s record in sentencing a handful of child pornography cases during her time as a District Court judge. Her critics claimed those sentences showed Jackson was “soft on crime." Independent fact-checkers have said those sentences aligned with prison terms handed out by other U.S. District Court judges.
The Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on Jackson’s nomination on April 4, which would pave the way for the full Senate to vote by April 8.