Hawley lays out questions he plans to ask Ketanji Brown Jackson in Supreme Court hearing
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley used his opening statement at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings Monday to outline his questions about her sentencing decisions in child pornography cases.
“I want to be candid with you today so you know exactly what it is that I want to talk about, so you know exactly where my head is at,” Hawley said.
Hawley raised the temperature around what had been a relatively placid nomination last week when he put out an 18-item Twitter thread criticizing Jackson’s record on child pornography. He cited questions she asked during a hearing of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a paper she wrote as a student at Harvard Law School and her record as a U.S. District Court judge.
The White House pushed back the next day, saying the criticism cherry-picked from Jackson’s record, ignored standard judicial practices on child pornography cases and was the equivalent of a smear.
On Monday, each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee was given 10 minutes to comment on Jackson’s nomination. Hawley used his time to put the claims he made on Twitter into the public record. He highlighted seven cases where Jackson issued sentences lower than the federal guidelines for child pornography crimes.
“I’m not interested in trapping Judge Jackson, I’m not interested in trying to play gotcha,” Hawley said. “I’m interested in her answers.”
If Jackson is confirmed, she would be the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court and the only public defender serving on the court.
Hawley has always been unlikely to support Jackson’s nomination. He voted against her confirmation to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year and has raised concerns about her defense of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
But his claims about Jackson’s record on child pornography caused an uproar in the U.S. Capitol, where Democrats are hoping to win the support of two moderate Republicans who have voted to confirm Jackson in previous nominations — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — to add to their narrow majority. Neither Murkowski nor Collins are on the Judiciary Committee and will not get to vote on her confirmation until it reaches the full Senate.
Democrats quickly accused him of attempting to smear her by distorting her record on an issue that causes a visceral, emotional reaction.
In particular, Hawley picked out parts of questions Jackson asked in a hearing about federal child pornography sentencing guidelines where she appeared to be seeking clarification from witnesses. In one quote Hawley shared, he said she “opined” there were less serious child pornography offenders. Jackson said she had previously assumed anyone charged with child pornography was a pedophile and the record shows she was asking for clarification about “non-sexually motivated offenders.”
He also criticized her advocacy for eliminating a required minimum sentence for people convicted on child pornography charges. The bipartisan sentencing commission she served on unanimously made those recommendations.
On Monday, however, he appeared more focused on her sentencing decisions, highlighting seven cases where Jackson sentenced the offender lower than the federally recommended minimum sentence.
This is not unusual. According to the United States Sentencing Commission report in 2021, around 59% of sentences for people who were convicted on non-production child pornography charges (where people possess or distribute the material but don’t create it), were below the federal minimum sentencing guidelines.
The percentage of child abuse cases where the sentence was lower than the federally recommended minimum was even higher in Missouri — around 77 percent of the cases between 2015 and 2020 were below the federal recommendations.
When informed of similar statistics last week, Hawley asked “is that a good thing?”
On Monday, he gave a fuller response, saying he believed stricter sentences for the possession and distribution of child pornography were reasonable given a proliferation of images in the internet era.
“The amount of child pornography in circulation has absolutely exploded in recent years,” Hawley said. “I think it’s difficult to argue... that the sentencing guidelines are too harsh.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Hawley lays out questions he plans to ask Ketanji Brown Jackson in Supreme Court hearing."