Senator Grassley. (photo from Senate video)
Senator Chuck Grassley says the confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is “off to a good start” this morning.
“I’ve continually emphasized the need for a thorough, respectful process by the committee,” Grassley said during an opening statement.
Grassley said Democrats turned the opening hours of the 2018 hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh into “a spectacle” and Republicans are taking a different approach.
“What we will do, however, is ask tough questions about Judge Jackson’s judicial philosophy,” Grassley said. “In any Supreme Court nomination, the most important thing we look for is the nominee’s view of the law, judicial philosophy and view on the role of a judge in our Constitutional system.”
Grassley said is the top Republican in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“We depend on judges to interpret laws as we write them,” Grassley said. “If judges impose their own policy preferences from the bench and, essentially, revise the laws we pass, it makes it harder for us to write good laws.”
(This story was updated at 3:44 p.m. A previous version incorrectly indicated Iowa’s other Republican senator, Joni Ernst, is a member of the Judiciary Committee. She rotated off the panel in January.)