Jackson faces initial round of questioning during hearings

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will face senators’ questions for the first time Tuesday as Democrats push to quickly confirm the only Black female justice in the court’s 233-year history.

Jackson, a federal appeals court judge, sat and silently listened to more than four hours of senators’ opening statements on Monday, the first of four days of Judiciary Committee hearings on her nomination. As senators begin 30-minute rounds of grilling on Tuesday, she will respond to their specific points, including charges by some Republicans that she has been too lenient in sentencing on criminal matters.

In her own 12-minute statement, Jackson didn’t mention specific cases but told the committee that she would “apply the laws to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath,” if she were to be confirmed.

Jackson, 51, thanked God and professed love for “our country and the Constitution.” She stressed that she