Ketanji Brown Jackson is now poised to win US Senate Supreme Court approval

The Senate put Ketanji Brown Jackson on a clear track to be confirmed later this week as the Supreme Court’s 116th justice — and its first Black woman — after three Republicans joined Democrats to advance her nomination in a Monday vote.

The full Senate could vote on her confirmation before the Easter recess, which is set to begin on April 8.

Three Republicans announced support for Jackson, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

All 50 members of the Democratic caucus also backed Jackson in a 53-to-47 procedural vote Monday evening, but the late-breaking support of the two GOP senators represented a minor triumph for President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats who were eager to put a bipartisan stamp of approval on a nominee whom many Republicans had eagerly painted as a soft-on-crime leftist radical.

Jackson, whom Biden nominated last month to fill the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy, would replace retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer.

When Jackson was confirmed to a federal appeals court last year, she got three Republican votes from Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), as well as Collins and Murkowski.

Graham, exclaiming that he wouldn’t care if detainees at Guantanamo Bay died in prison without trial, stormed out of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for the Supreme Court nominee after a clash with Chairman Dick Durbin concerning his line of questioning.

In a statement, Murkowski praised Jackson’s qualifications and temperament, as well as her “demonstrated judicial independence” and “the important perspective she would bring to the court” as a former Supreme Court law clerk, federal public defender, trial judge, and now appeals court judge.

Romney — who was the only Senate Republican to vote in favor of disgraced former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — called the nominee “a well-qualified jurist and a person of honor.” His term ends in 2024.

“While I do not expect to agree with every decision she may make on the Court, I believe that she more than meets the standard of excellence and integrity,” Romney said.

A narrowly split confirmation vote shaping up for President Biden’s nominee holds important implications for both parties.

For Democrats, the show of support is a big win for the president. His White House confirmation team had targeted Murkowski, Romney, and Collins as the most likely Republicans to cross party lines in the Senate, where most GOP lawmakers have engaged in such bizarre acts of obstruction that they have been called unAmerican.

During the admin­is­tra­tion of Pres­id­ent Barack Obama, Senate Repub­lic­ans took obstruc­tion to a new level, using the fili­buster more than ever in history.

But the use of the tactic had been climb­ing even before Obama became pres­id­ent, prompt­ing recent pres­id­ents of both parties to use exec­ut­ive orders and other admin­is­trat­ive tools to circum­vent Congress.