Jackson Vows Independence Amid Republican Grilling

Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's nominee to become the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, pledged independence if confirmed and embraced a limited role for jurists as a Senate panel on Monday opened a confirmation hearing in which her record came under pointed Republican questioning.

In her opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jackson also noted that her parents grew up in the era of racial segregation in the South.

"My parents taught me that, unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, such that if I worked hard and believed in myself, in America I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be," she said.

During opening statements, Democrats hailed the historic nature of her selection and praised her record as a federal appellate and district court judge. Republicans raised questions about her record - including Sen. Marsha Blackburn - and tried to link her to advocacy groups on the left, while signaling they would try to paint Jackson as "soft on crime."

Biden, who as a candidate in 2020 pledged to appoint a Black woman to the court, last month nominated Jackson, 51, for a lifetime job on America's top judicial body to succeed retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, setting up a confirmation battle in the closely divided Senate.

"Members of this committee: If I am confirmed, I commit to you that I will work productively to support and defend the Constitution and the grand experiment of American democracy that has endured over these past 246 years," Jackson said in her opening statement.

"I know that my role as a judge is a limited one - that the Constitution empowers me only to decide cases and controversies that are properly presented. And I know that my judicial role is further constrained by careful adherence to precedent," Jackson said.

"I have been a judge for nearly a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously. I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath," she added.

If confirmed, she would be the 116th justice to serve on the high court.

"Not a single justice has been a Black woman. You, Judge Jackson, can be the first," said Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the committee.

"It's not easy being the first. You have to be the best and in some ways the brightest. Your presence here today and your willingness to brave this process will give inspiration to millions of women who see themselves in you," Durbin added.