Louisiana senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy say President Biden’s nomination for Supreme Court justice will not get their vote.
U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy announced Monday that he will vote no on U.S. District of Columbia Appeals Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court. If confirmed she would be the first Black female U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Cassidy outlined his reason for voting against Jackson in a social media post. In the post, he calls Judge Jackson “gracious, intelligent, and accomplished.”
He continues to say, “When the political left opposed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett, not because they were not qualified but because of their presumed jurisprudence, they established the criteria by which future nominees should be judged. President Biden chose Judge Jackson precisely because she is not a strict constructionist and because she had the strong support of those who prefer an activist judge. It is for these reasons that I will vote no.”
U.S. Senator John Kennedy also announced in a statement that he will vote against Judge Jackson’s nomination.
“I found Judge Jackson to be smart, well-versed in the law, and . . . extraordinarily deft and artful in her ability to speak at length without saying anything of substance on critical questions—especially the limits of judicial power and the importance of judicial restraint,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy continues, “I don’t agree with the judge on where, based on her opinions, she draws the limits of judicial power, and I don’t think she places as great an importance as I do on judicial restraint in a Madisonian system of checks and balances and separation of powers, and, for that reason, I will be voting no.”
