Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Thursday she will not support the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Captio, who also opposed Jackson’s nomination to the U,S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, said during a virtual press conference from her Washington office Thursday morning a major concern was some of Jackson’s previous decisions related to the separation of powers where she ruled in a “philosophical way” and may have been influenced by her own personal beliefs.
Capito met with her recently, wanting to have a clearer picture of where Jackson stands on this issue.
“We had a very great conversation,” she said, adding that Jackson has an “enormous career” and “great stature in the legal community.”
But she “did not flush out my concerns,” Capito said. “I cannot vote for her nomination to the Supreme Court.”
Capito said she told Jackson to “get me from a no to a yes,” but was not satisfied that her decisions on the court would always be guided by the letter of the law and not her philosophical bent.
The decision was nothing at all personal, she added, and Jackson has a “great background.”
But Jackson “would not define her judicial philosophy, which, for me, is one of the most important factors when considering nominees.”
“Sitting on the Supreme Court is very different from serving as a judge in lower courts, and Judge Jackson’s lack of a judicial philosophy provides little clarity as to how she will evaluate cases that come before her,” Capito said in a statement released after the press briefing.
“Although Judge Jackson indicated that Supreme Court Justices must defer to the letter of the law and the text of the Constitution, some of her previous opinions have failed to adhere to this standard,” she said. “Judge Jackson also suggested that she supports the ability of the Court to ‘discover’ unenumerated rights that go beyond the original intent of the Constitution, which would turn the Supreme Court into an activist, quasi-legislative body.”
Capito also said she is concerned about Jackson’s “inability to commit to reigning in executive agency overreach, particularly as the Biden administration implements agency rulemaking that goes beyond the statutory intent of Congress, and will harm my state of West Virginia particularly.”
“The support of outside organizations that have explicitly advocated for an activist Justice who will pursue their far-left policy goals does not assuage these concerns,” she said. “While I appreciate Judge Jackson’s cordial visit with me, as well as her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, these aforementioned concerns preclude me from being able to support her confirmation.”