Missouri Sen. Blunt says he will vote against Supreme Court nominee

Both of Missouri’s senators now are on the record as saying they will vote against Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court, saying he disagrees with her judicial stance.

“My sense is that the president certainly had every good intention and every, every right in the campaign to talk about putting the first black woman on the court,” Sen. Roy Blunt said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “I was hoping that I could be a part of that.”

But he said he found in conversations he had with Jackson on Capitol Hill last week that while she is “certainly qualified” and has a “great personality,” her judicial views gave him pause.

“The judicial philosophy seems to be not the philosophy of looking at what the law says and the Constitution says and applying that, but going through some method that allows you to try to look at the Constitution as a more flexible document and even the law, and there are cases that show that that’s her view,” Blunt said.

Jackson’s record on light sentencing for child sexual predators has come under particular scrutiny, something that has been difficult for her Democrat supporters to defend.

Missouri’s other Senator, Hawley, told Fox News host Sean Hannity that one convict was sentenced to only three months in prison, while being eligible for up to 10 years.

“She gave him three months and she apologized to him,” he said. “[W]e’ve had now over 20 hours of questioning in the Judiciary Committee, and I think her record is pretty clear when it comes to crime – and especially crimes against children.”

“This is somebody who apologizes to the criminals. This is someone who has handed out one lenient sentence after another, especially when it comes to these child sex crimes. And frankly, this is somebody who I just can’t support.”

Hawley said that in cases involving porn, Jackson handed down lighter sentences than guidelines suggested “100 percent” of the time.

Regardless of the criticism, most believe she’ll be confirmed.

That’s true of Blunet who thinks she will “certainly” be confirmed and that it will be a “high point” for the country to see her elevated to the Supreme Court.

“But I don’t think she’s the kind of judge that will really do the kind of work that I think needs to be done by the court, and I won’t be supporting her,” he said. “But I’ll be joining others and understanding the importance of this moment.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked this week on Jackson’s confirmation, the full Senate has yet to schedule a vote. All 11 Democrats on the panel voted in her favor, while all 11 of Republicans opposed her nomination.

So far, only one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, has come out in support of Jackson. Collins was one of three GOP senators who voted to confirm Jackson to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last year, along with Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Missouri’s junior senator, Josh Hawley, already announced he would vote against Jackson.

National media have attacked Republicans for opposing her nomination which stands in sharp contrast to media praise of Democrats who opposed Donald Trump’s three court nominations.

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice