A3P Statement on President Biden’s Supreme Court Nomination

WASHINGTON – Mike Davis, Founder and President of the Article III Project (A3P), today released the following statement regarding President Joe Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

“Judge Jackson has served for only eight months on the appeals court. She has written only two opinions as an appellate judge. Unlike how Senate Democrats treated President Trump’s three Supreme Court nominees, Senate Republicans will treat Judge Jackson with respect and dignity. Senators have a constitutional duty to rigorously vet Judge Jackson’s qualifications, record, character, and fitness for elevation to the Supreme Court. With her light record as an appellate judge, her confirmation hearing will serve as a critical test.

“President Biden and Senate Democrats pretend they want more diversity on the federal bench. But they have a decades-long pattern and practice of opposing women and minority judicial nominees from Republican presidents. Judge Jackson’s nomination is historic, but make no mistake: President Biden and Senate Democrats don’t actually care about diversity; they care about power.”

BACKGROUND: Democrats have a long history of voting against women and minority judicial nominees made by Republican presidents. A3P documents the women and minority judicial nominees made by Republican presidents, which can be found here. During the Bush and Trump presidencies, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) voted against 52 women and minority judicial nominees, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) voted against 35, and Senate Judiciary Committee Senior Member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)—who is a member of an all-white beach club—voted against 28. Davis recently wrote an op-ed for Newsweek calling out Democrats’ hypocrisy on diversity in the courts.  

Davis is the founder and president of the Article III Project (A3P), a grassroots advocacy organization that supports constitutionalist judges, fights radical assaults on judicial independence and opposes nominees outside of the mainstream. Davis previously served as the chief counsel for nominations for then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), where he served as staff leader for the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh and a record number of federal circuit judges. Davis previously clerked for Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, both on the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. 

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