Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday for the first day of confirmation hearing questions following her Supreme Court nomination.
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Rory Little, Professor at UC Hastings College of the Law, who previously clerked at the Supreme Court, told KCBS Radio one of the most important things is how Jackson handles herself.
"It probably matters more than anything else. All we see are the televised images of these nominees," he explained. "She's clearly got a lot of knowledge from her experience… The rest of America, they don't care about the substance, they just want to see how the person looks and do they lose their cool."
Little recalled a famous moment where Justice Brett Kavanaugh lost his composure during his testimony. "That kind of detracted from people’s impression of him," Little said. "Among other things."
Despite the difficult series of questions involving religion, abortion and judicial philosophy, Senator Diane Fienstein said Jackson was holding up very well. "You can't be a district court judge and hear case after case with very difficult facts sometimes and be successful if you don’t know how to keep your cool," Little said.
On February 25, President Biden nominated Jackson to become the 116th Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer. Jackson is the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court.
Many Supreme Court nominees often provide broad answers to the series of questioning, but Little believes Jackson is answering more substantively than her priors. Before the nomination, Jackson served as a U.S. District Court judge for eight years.
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