[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 56 (Wednesday, March 30, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1841-S1842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson

  Mr. President, now on an entirely different matter, I oppose Judge 
Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation for three main reasons. First, 
Judge Jackson has refused to follow the Ginsburg-Breyer model and 
denounce partisan Court-packing. She testified she would be ``thrilled 
to be one of however many.''
  Second, Judge Jackson was not sufficiently forthcoming on judicial 
philosophy to dispel President Biden's public litmus test that he would 
only nominate a judicial activist.
  And, third, Judge Jackson's personal policy views on criminal 
sentencing have clearly slanted her jurisprudence. The average violent 
criminal who was convicted in Judge Jackson's courtroom got a sentence 
nearly 2 years lower than the Federal guidelines. The average drug 
criminal, gun criminal, sex criminal, and financial criminal before 
Judge Jackson all came in underneath the guidelines as well.
  In the specific area of child exploitation crimes, the nominee was 
lenient to the extreme. The average Federal judge sentences one out of 
every three child pornography possessors to a sentence within the stiff 
guidelines.
  Judge Jackson never did it once. The national average is 1 out of 3, 
and Judge Jackson went 0 for 11. As she told Senators repeatedly, this 
was not some case-by-case coincidence but rather her consistent policy 
bias.

       I was making policy determinations.
       I have policy disagreements with certain aspects of the 
     operation of the guidelines.


[[Page S1842]]


  The Washington Post just interviewed a convicted possessor of child 
pornography who was supposed to get 8 to 10 years under the guidelines. 
The prosecutor wanted 2 years; Judge Jackson gave him 3 months--her 
``policy disagreements'' in action.
  This criminal realizes he was lucky to end up in Judge Jackson's 
courtroom. Here is what he told the Post:

       I wasn't very happy that she gave me three months, though, 
     after reflection when I was in jail, I was hearing from other 
     people who said it was their first time arrested and they got 
     five years, six years.

  This is not a few cherry-picked cases. This is a consistent thread 
that runs through Judge Jackson's accomplished legal career.
  In 2011, as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Judge 
Jackson reportedly made the jaw-dropping argument that if criminals 
were going to recidivate no matter what, it doesn't matter whether we 
lock them up for a long time or let them out early.

       If we keep them in jail for the extra 36 months, or 
     whatever, they're going to recidivate at the same rate.

  A U.S. attorney replied with the obvious point that criminals can 
only reoffend if they are back on the streets.
  In 2020, Judge Jackson rewrote the FIRST STEP Act on the bench to let 
a fentanyl trafficker out of jail early. In 2018, while initially 
sentencing this defendant, she apologized to him and voiced frustration 
that the law forced her to apply a tough sentence. Two years later, she 
twisted the law to let him out.
  Last year, Judge Jackson granted compassionate release to someone who 
shot and killed a U.S. marshal. The Parole Commission had repeatedly 
denied this release, but Judge Jackson let him out.
  These are not personal criticisms of Judge Jackson. They are what the 
nominee herself calls these decisions ``policy differences.'' And 
policymaking is supposed to happen here in this Chamber, not in the 
courthouse across the street.
  This isn't just about this nomination. The Biden administration has a 
sweeping project to make the whole Federal judiciary softer on crime.
  Even as this violent crimewave we are experiencing sweeps across 
America, the Biden administration is pursuing an ideological mission to 
make the Federal bench kinder and gentler to criminals.

  Judge Jackson's record suggests she stretches the judicial role to 
advance that project.