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FEATURING DR. NADIA BROWN - The United States Senate this week holds confirmation hearings for the nation’s first ever Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court. Nominated by President Joe Biden, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in her opening statements on Monday promised to decide cases from a neutral position. She has authored hundreds of decisions in her various judicial roles and faced Senate confirmation hearings for a position on the D.C. Circuit court less than a year ago where she was confirmed by members of both parties.

But this week, Republican Senators grilled her on her work as a federal public defender for Guantanamo detainees more than 10 years ago. Senator Josh Hawley in particular, honed in on her decisions in child pornography cases, cherry picking her statements to suggest that she was “soft on crime.” Senator Lindsey Graham appeared intent on punishing Judge Jackson for what he perceived as poor treatment of rightwing justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett during their confirmation hearings. And, the same week that the hearings were held, the GOP released an ad bizarrely conflating Judge Jackson with Critical Race Theory by superimposing the acronym CRT over her initial KBJ.

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