Watch Live: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings begin

Washington — Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday for her confirmation hearings, where senators are delivering opening statements before Jackson herself makes remarks.

The hearings, which are scheduled to last four days, come 24 days after President Biden announced the historic selection of Jackson to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. Questioning is set to begin Tuesday and continue Wednesday.

Jackson became the first Black woman to be selected for the high court, and if confirmed by the evenly divided Senate, she will be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

“Today’s a proud day for America,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said to open the hearing, noting that while the Supreme Court has been filled with “many superb justices” who have made lasting contributions to the rule of law, “the reality is the court’s members in one respect have never really reflected the nation they served.”

“You, Judge Jackson, can be the first,” he said.

Jackson has spent the past month meeting behind closed doors with Democratic and Republican senators. But the hearings give Jackson the opportunity to publicly explain her decisions across her nearly nine years on the federal bench, how she approaches cases and what she believes is the role of the Supreme Court.

The addition of Jackson to the Supreme Court will not alter its ideological balance, but at 51 years old, she is positioned to serve for decades. 

With Democrats controlling 50 seats in the Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris breaking tie votes, Jackson can be confirmed without Republican support, and Democrats hope the Senate will hold its final vote before it breaks for a two-week recess April 8. 

But the White House and Democratic leaders are hoping the Senate will approve her nomination with backing from both parties. Durbin estimated half-a-dozen Republicans could vote to confirm Jackson, and some GOP senators have suggested they’re open to doing so.

Three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — backed Jackson’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals to the District of Columbia Circuit last year. Durbin told reporters this month part of his appeal to Republicans who opposed her confirmation to the D.C. Circuit is that her confirmation would make history.

In the run-up to Jackson’s confirmation, Republicans honed in on her two years working as an assistant federal public defender and on the Sentencing Commission, claiming her nomination is part of a broader push by Mr. Biden to make the federal judiciary “softer on crime.”