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Republican Sen. Susan Collins announced Wednesday that she will vote in favor of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation, ensuring that the Senate vote elevating the first black woman to the nation’s highest court will be bipartisan.
“I have decided to support the confirmation of Judge Jackson to be a member of the Supreme Court,” the Maine Republican told the New York Times after meeting with Jackson Tuesday.
Collins added that she had been reassured Jackson would not be “bending the law to meet a personal preference” while on the Supreme Court.
“In recent years, senators on both sides of the aisle have gotten away from what I perceive to be the appropriate process for evaluating judicial nominees,” Collins told the Times.
“In my view, the role under the Constitution assigned to the Senate is to look at the credentials, experience and qualifications of the nominees. It is not to assess whether a nominee reflects the individual’s ideology of a senator or would vote exactly as an individual senator would want.”
It is unclear whether any other Republicans will join Collins in supporting Jackson’s confirmation. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina joined Collins in voting to elevate Jackson to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last year.
Collins’ announcement also removes the possibility of Harris becoming the first vice president to have to break a tie on a Supreme Court nomination.
Several Republican senators have been criticized for their treatment of Jackson during last week’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, with most of the toughest questions focusing on her sentencing record while a federal district judge.
“In my meetings with Judge Jackson, we discussed in depth several issues that were raised in her hearing,” Collins stated Wednesday. “Sometimes I agreed with her; sometimes I did not. And just as I have disagreed with some of her decisions to date, I have no doubt that, if Judge Jackson is confirmed, I will not agree with every vote that she casts as a Justice.”
“That alone, however, is not disqualifying,” Collins continued. “Indeed, that statement applies to all six Justices, nominated by both Republican and Democratic Presidents, whom I have voted to confirm.”
Collins previously voted to confirm Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Samuel Alito, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts. She was the lone Republican to vote against the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, arguing that the vacancy left by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg should not be filled until after that year’s presidential election.
“To be clear, my vote does not reflect any conclusion that I have reached about Judge Barrett’s qualifications to serve on the Supreme Court,” she said at the time. “What I have concentrated on is being fair and consistent, and I do not think it is fair nor consistent to have a Senate confirmation vote prior to the election.
“The White House quickly praised Collins for her decision on Wednesday, with chief of staff Ron Klain tweeting, “Grateful to @SenatorCollins for giving fair, thoughtful consideration to Judge Jackson — and all of the @POTUS’ judicial nominations.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on referring Jackson’s nomination to the full Senate on April 4, with a final vote on confirmation expected later that week. Jackson would then take the place of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer for the Supreme Court term beginning in October.
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