Ketanji Brown Jackson's SCOTUS vote in progress in Judiciary Committee

Senate Judiciary Committee Votes On Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS Nomination

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

There’s been a WHOLE LOT of drama in the news lately and there could potentially be a lot more if the Senate doesn’t vote to send the honorable Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first African-American woman to sit on the Supreme Court of these united states. But before that can happen, the panel of poll-sensitive politicians who have been berating her and uplifting her in the Senate Judiciary Committee have to vote to send Joe Biden’s nominee to the full chamber. As you might imagine, that is no easy task in this day of extreme political polarization.

A majority of the current SCOTUS justices were confirmed easily even if there were a few dissenting opinions. A CNN article gives some context to how different things are post-Trump as compared to what they have been over the past several decades.

In the past, nominees have sailed to confirmation without a single Nay vote, as Justices Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia did. Or in the case of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, just three Nays.

Justice Stephen Breyer — whose seat Jackson is nominated to fill — was confirmed 87-9 in 1994 during the Clinton administration. And in 2005, Chief Justice John Roberts, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, was confirmed with a vote of 78-22 under a Republican-controlled Senate.

The article goes on to note that Breyer and Roberts represent the last days of justices getting major bipartisan support, nowadays, not so much. Brett Kavanaugh’s s**t show of a confirmation barely got him across the finish line with a 50-48 vote. Very credibly accused sexual abuser Clarence Thomas got his lifetime appointment through a 52-48 vote back in 1991. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett were nominated by Trump and pushed through confirmation by the Republican Senate with (58-42), (54-45), and (52-48) votes respectively.

At this time, the only Republican senator who has publicly pledged to vote “yes” on Judge Brown Jackson is Maine’s Susan Collins. We won’t take her word for it though, she’s flip-floppier than a pair of Walmart slides.