Ten State AGs Sign Letter Opposing Ketanji Brown Jackson’s SCOTUS Nomination

Mary RookeApril 4, 2022

Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton led nine other state attorneys general Monday in signing a letter in opposition to Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ten state attorneys generals joined together in signing the letter to Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, arguing Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court would “harm the institution.”

The letter was signed by:

Ketanji Brown Jackson is unfit to serve on #SCOTUS. My fellow AGs agree.

➡️ She supports CRT
➡️ She cannot define a “woman”
➡️ She is unforgivably soft on monsters who possess, publish, produce images of child rape.

See our letter to Senate Judiciary: pic.twitter.com/olhySlNMKY

— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) April 4, 2022

The letter highlighted Jackson’s leniency toward criminals convicted of being in possession of “images of child rape” as their reason for opposing Biden’s SCOTUS pick. (RELATED: A ‘Week-Long Indoctrination Of Your Students,’ Texas Attorney General Says School District Is Breaking Texas Law In ‘Pride Week’ Events)

“Judge Jackson hasn’t merely erred on the more forgiving end of the spectrum of available punishments, as many judges sometimes do,” the letter stated. “Rather, during her decade-long tenure as a federal district judge, she repeatedly cast victims aside, elevated criminal defendants above them, and sentenced the abusers well below the accepted federal guidelines.”

Jackson sentenced criminals from “15 to nearly 70 percent less” than the recommended sentencing by prosecutors in “dozens” of child pornography cases, according to the letter.

The state attorneys general said Jackson’s history of being “soft on crime” for non-contact sex offenses is “completely out of touch with how Americans want our justice system to treat child-sex criminals.”

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley drew attention to Jackson’s record on sentencing criminals convicted of having child pornography in a March 16 tweet.

“Judge Jackson has a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker. She’s been advocating for it since law school. This goes beyond ‘soft on crime.’ I’m concerned that this [is] a record that endangers our children,” Hawley tweeted.

Jackson defended her sentencing record during her Senate confirmation hearing, arguing that Congress determines how much discretion judges have to determine the punishment for child-sex criminals. She also pointed out that there are multiple aspects to consider when determining a sentence.

“The statute says, ‘calculate the guidelines,’ but also look at various aspects of this offense and impose a sentence that is ‘sufficient, but not greater than necessary to promote the purposes of punishment,” Jackson said.

Today, Attorney General O’Connor joined a letter with fellow Attorneys General voicing opposition to the nomination of Judge Kentaji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Read the letter here: https://t.co/1cWu0jVtGW

— Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor (@Okla_OAG) April 4, 2022

“Judges should be cutting off the supply of porn that feeds these criminal monsters by being tough on offenders,” the letter stated. “Instead, being soft on them, Judge Jackson has made it more likely for images of child rape to proliferate and thus made it easier for children to be sexualized, abused, and exploited.”

“Bottom line: child pornographers don’t deserve a break; they deserve to go to prison for a very, very long time, and certainly much longer than Judge Jackson ever imposed,” the state attorneys general added. “The United States Senate should do its job and protect the American people from this dangerous nominee.”