Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Majority of Americans Polled Say Jackson Qualified to Be on Supreme Court

Most Americans who have an opinion on President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson believe that she is qualified to sit on the nation's highest court, according to a new poll.
© Drew Angerer/Getty
 Although many Americans remained undecided, polling indicated that most who had an opinion believed Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was qualified to serve on the court. Jackson is pictured after her nomination was announced by President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C. on February 25, 2022.

Aila Slisco 1 hour ago

A YouGov poll conducted on Friday, the same day that Biden announced the nomination, found that 39 percent of Americans were confident that Jackson was qualified to serve on the court, while 13 percent said that she was not qualified and a 48 percent plurality were undecided. A 66 percent majority of Democrats said that she was qualified. Although most Republicans and independents were undecided, 32 percent of independents and 20 percent of Republicans agreed.

Jackson was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year, where she succeeded current Attorney General Merrick Garland. She previously served for over eight years as a federal district court judge and also has experience as a public defender and as assistant special counsel on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Jackson is the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court. The poll found that a 56 percent majority of Black Americans believed Jackson was qualified to serve on the court, with 38 percent being undecided and 6 percent saying she was not qualified. Only 35 percent of white Americans agreed that she was qualified, while 50 percent said they were not decided and 15 percent said she was not qualified.

The poll also found that a 46 percent plurality said they were "not sure" whether Jackson would be confirmed to the court, with 41 percent saying she would be confirmed and 13 percent insisting she would not. A 56 percent majority of Democrats said that she would be confirmed, while Republicans were the most likely to say she would not at 16 percent.

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joined every member of the Democratic caucus to confirm Jackson to the Court of Appeals last year. Barring any opposition from Senate Democrats, Jackson could be confirmed to the Supreme Court without any Republican support.

Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a statement to "congratulate" Jackson on her nomination last Friday, while vowing that she would "receive the most thorough and rigorous vetting."

During a Monday Fox News appearance, Grassley promised the Republicans were "going to be polite" during the confirmation process. He made the remarks while taking shots at Democrats for getting "down in the gutter" during confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Other Republicans offered immediate opposition. Graham denounced Jackson as a member of the "radical left" following the nomination, despite having voted to confirm her to the appeals court last year. The Republican National Committee (RNC) warned that Jackson was "a Democrat partisan who will put far-left special interests ahead of defending the liberties of Americans."

Weeks before the nomination was announced, a YouGov / Yahoo News poll that included details of Jackson's educational background and judicial experience found that most believed she was either "very" or "somewhat" qualified to serve on the court.

After being presented with details like Jackson graduating from Harvard Law School and her serving as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who she may replace, 69 percent of Americans agreed that she was qualified—including 57 percent of Republicans.

The most recent poll was conducted online on February 25 among 2,092 U.S. adults. No margin of error was listed. The earlier poll was conducted online among 1,625 U.S. adults between February 3 and February 7, with a 3 percent margin of error.

Newsweek reached out to the RNC for comment.

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