Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO NIGHTLY: What to ask Ketanji Brown Jackson

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

POLITICO NIGHTLY: What to ask Ketanji Brown Jackson

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Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in during the first day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 21, 2022. | Francis Chung/E&E News/POLITICO

UnFAQ — You could be forgiven for wondering why we bother with Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

It often seems like senators in these hearings aren’t interested in conducting a job interview with a candidate for a lifetime appointment on the nation’s highest court. Instead, many of them give speeches and try to score partisan points.

But maybe the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will decide to conduct themselves with unusual sobriety Tuesday morning, when the questioning portion of the hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson begin. So if you’re a United States senator and you’re having trouble formulating just the right question, here’s a handy cheat sheet.

POLITICO Magazine asked a dozen legal experts to tell us what they’d ask her — and why. We’ll be running all the questions Tuesday, but here’s a sample of what some of the respondents said. Feel free to just take one of these, senators. We won’t tell.

Law professor Josh Blackman, the coauthor of An Introduction to Constitutional Law: 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know, thinks that, as she goes through her third judicial confirmation hearing, Jackson would be well-suited to answer: “How would you change the Supreme Court confirmation process?” By taking a process-focused approach, he says, senators would gain insights into how Jackson understands the seat she will likely fill for decades.

“How do you plan to use your symbolic role to shape Americans’ relationship with their Supreme Court?” asks Linda Hirshman, the author of Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World. She wants to know whether Jackson would simply stick to strongly-worded dissents, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or become more of a public figure like Sandra Day O’Connor or Sonia Sotomayor.

Law professor Daniel Epps, the cohost of Divided Argument, a podcast that analyzes the Supreme Court’s decisions, pointedly asks: “What area of law was your former boss, Justice Stephen Breyer, who you’ll be replacing, most wrong about, and why?” The answer, he says, would reveal how Jackson might unsettle the court outside of the marquee constitutional cases that track partisan divisions.

And POLITICO Magazine contributing editor Tomiko Brown-Nagin, author of Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality , says she would ask Jackson to reflect on an aspect of her background that critics have seized on: her past as a public defender. She says Jackson’s work history could quite possibly make her an influential, perhaps transformational, justice in the years ahead. So Brown-Nagin would ask: “How have your experiences with the criminal legal system shaped your views about the nation’s system of crime and punishment, and about the judicial role?”

Check out POLITICO Magazine Tuesday morning to read more about why our experts think these are the key questions for Jackson to answer — and to read the questions that eight more legal experts say senators should pose during the confirmation hearings.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at rarrieta-kenna@politico.com, or on Twitter at @ruairiak.

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WHAT'D I MISS?

— Biden tells companies to immediately harden defenses against potential Russian cyberattacks: Biden warned of potential Russian cyberattacks against the U.S. — his most prominent alert yet about what he called new intelligence concerning the Putin regime’s plans. The administration has previously warned of Russian cyberattacks in Ukraine and elsewhere, but Biden’s statement today came under the president’s own name. It also referred to new intelligence about attacks being planned instead of potential Russian cyber activities.

— DoD official: Russia’s hypersonic missile boast ‘a bit of a head-scratcher’: Russia may have launched a hypersonic missile over the weekend in an assault on a Ukrainian munitions depot , a senior Defense Department official said, but Moscow’s claim about the nature of the weapon is “a bit of a head-scratcher.” U.S. officials are “not able to refute” the Russian military’s declaration Saturday that it used a Kinzhal hypersonic missile to strike an underground warehouse storing Ukrainian missiles and aviation ammunition, the official said. The launch would be the first use of the Kinzhal in combat.

Ukrainians show support for the residents and defenders of Mariupol in Lviv, Ukraine. | Alexey Furman/Getty Images

— As Mariupol hangs on, the extent of the horror not yet known: The number of bodies in the rubble of the bombarded and encircled Ukrainian city remained shrouded in uncertainty , the full extent of the horror not yet known. With communications crippled, movement restricted and many residents in hiding, the fate of those inside an art school flattened on Sunday and a theater that was blown apart four days earlier was unclear. More than 1,300 people were believed to be sheltering in the theater, and 400 were estimated to have been in the art school. Perched on the Sea of Azov, Mariupol has been a key target that has been relentlessly pounded for more than three weeks and has seen some of the worst suffering of the war. The fall of the southern port city would help Russia establish a land bridge to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.

— Ex-wife accuses top Missouri GOP Senate candidate of abuse: Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, now a leading Republican Senate candidate, was physically abusive and demonstrated such “unstable and coercive behavior” that steps were taken to limit his access to firearms , according to new allegations from his ex-wife revealed in court records. The sworn affidavit from Sheena Greitens is part of an ongoing child custody dispute in Missouri. A public affairs professor at the University of Texas, she sought divorce from Eric Greitens after a sex scandal which led to his resignation as governor in June 2018. She’s now asking the court to move the custody case to Austin in part to spare her children from renewed public attention as Eric Greitens tries to mount a political comeback.

JOIN THURSDAY FOR A CONVERSATION ON CRYPTOCURRENCY AND REGULATION: Cryptocurrency has gone mainstream. With the market now valued at $1.8 trillion, Washington’s oversight of the fast-growing industry remains in its infancy. How should Congress and federal agencies shape future regulation of digital asset markets? Join POLITICO in person or virtually for a deep-dive discussion on what’s next for crypto, regulation and the future of finance. Programming will run from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. EDT with a reception from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EDT. REGISTER HERE.

— Five years on, U.S. recognizes Rohingya as victims of genocide: Nearly five years after they were raped, beaten, murdered and forced to flee their burning villages, the United States has officially declared that the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar were victims of genocide and crimes against humanity . The announcement, delivered today by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, may help the Rohingya build an international legal case against Myanmar’s military. It comes after years of demands by the Rohingya as well as human rights activists, scholars and lawmakers that the U.S. executive branch recognize the severity of the 2017 atrocities. It further comes as Myanmar, also known as Burma, is in an ongoing crisis spurred by a military coup in February 2021.

— 2nd Capitol riot trial puts Justice Department’s strategy to the test: The case of Couy Griffin, a New Mexico county commissioner and founder of Cowboys for Trump, looks to be among the most marginal of hundreds of prosecutions stemming from the unrest and violence that broke out as lawmakers were seeking to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election . Unlike the vast majority of the nearly 800 people charged in connection with Jan. 6, Griffin didn’t go inside the building, nor is he accused of violence or property destruction. Griffin’s defense, with a boost from the judge, has turned the trial into a key test for the Justice Department’s central thesis in hundreds of other Jan. 6 prosecutions: that the Capitol and its grounds were strictly off-limits in part because Vice President Mike Pence was at the site, automatically triggering a Secret Service perimeter and the coverage of a federal law aimed at safeguarding Secret Service protectees.

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NIGHTLY NUMBER

The number of truly competitive House seats — those decided by less than 5 percentage points at the presidential level in 2020 — after redistricting. according to a POLITICO analysis. Before the redraws, there were about 50 seats decided by that margin.

DON’T MISS POLITICO’S INAUGURAL HEALTH CARE SUMMIT ON 3/31: Join POLITICO for a discussion with health care providers, policymakers, federal regulators, patient representatives, and industry leaders to better understand the latest policy and industry solutions in place as we enter year three of the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the latest proposals to overcome long-standing health care challenges in the U.S., such as expanding access to care, affordability, and prescription drug prices. REGISTER HERE.

PARTING WORDS

Former President Donald Trump points to the crowd at a rally at the Canyon Moon Ranch festival grounds in Florence, Ariz. | Mario Tama/Getty Images

RAKING THE DOUGH TO MAR-A-LAGO — Millions of dollars poured into super PACs and party committees in February. But none of them have as much money as the group controlled by former President Donald Trump, Brittany Gibson and Zach Montellaro write.

Trump’s operation has built a mountain of cash typically only seen at the national party groups, but he continues to largely keep the money to himself. Meanwhile, allies of the former president are cementing themselves as part of a new power base in the Republican Party, and Democrats are pouring money into their efforts to retain control of Congress.

POLITICO pored over the monthly Federal Election Commission filings for super PACs and party committees, with more outside groups and candidates set to report their first fundraising numbers of the year next month.

Trump’s Save America PAC crossed $110 million in the bank at the end of February, after taking in $3.5 million during the month and spending just $1.2 million.

That is more money than both national political parties — the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee — have combined in their main bank account. The DNC reported $52.9 million in its coffers at the end of the month, while its Republican counterpart had $45.5 million in its bank account.

Trump has done little to spend his largesse around the party. The committee did not report any new donations or independent expenditures backing Trump-endorsed candidates.

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