By Stacy M. Brown
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday voted along party lines in an 11-11 split for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The vote, briefly held up because of a rerouted aircraft carrying Democratic California Sen. Alex Padilla, is just the initial step in the process to confirm Jackson as the first Black woman to sit on the nation’s highest court.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) now expects to move to discharge the nomination and send it to the Senate floor for a full vote later this week.
With all Senate Democrats and now at least three Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah — seemingly in favor of Jackson, it appears the nominee will obtain the 51 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster and discharge the nomination.
