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U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 23, 2022 in Washington, DC. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court, would become the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court if confirmed. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The U.S. Senate approved a procedural measure Tuesday to advance Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court, setting up a final vote on confirmation as early as Thursday.
The roll call Tuesday was identical to the tally on another procedural vote Monday. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah voted with all 50 Senate Democrats to advance the confirmation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has pledged to hold the confirmation vote before senators’ two-week recess begins Friday.
Republicans on the Senate floor continued to raise objections to the nomination, as they did during hours of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings last week.
Schumer’s Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said on the floor that Democrats unfairly attacked justices nominated by Republican presidents during the last four decades.
Senate Democrats “thrust the Senate into a more aggressive posture toward nominations,” McConnell said, and had “no standing” to complain about Jackson’s treatment.
McConnell said his complaints about Democrats’ past behavior was not the reason he opposed Jackson. He said he would give more details about his opposition Wednesday.
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