In 1988, Ketanji Brown graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High School. One year later and 5 miles away, Marco Rubio graduated from South Miami Senior High School. Now with one as a two-term U.S. senator and the other a Federal judge, their paths will cross once more as Rubio votes on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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“Next week the Judiciary Committee is going to start hearing on Judge Brown Jackson’s nomination,” said Dr. Larry Walker, a former staffer in D.C. who is now an associate professor at UCF. “They are going to pose a number of questions from the work she has done to the decisions she has made as a judge.”
Neither of Florida’s two U.S. senators are on the Judiciary Committee, however, both have indicated they will have an open mind when it comes to the nomination.
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“I go through the same process no matter who is nominated,” said Rubio in an interview with Channel 9 on the day Brown Jackson was nominated. “I believe their job is to interpret and apply the Constitution, and my belief that it should be applied based on its original intent.”
Rubio’s comments echo those of his counterpart Sen. Rick Scott who told Channel 9, “you don’t have a right to make law, you have a right to interpret laws, and so I plan to sit down with her and understand does she plan to be part of the Legislature of Judiciary Branch.”
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On June 14, 2021, Judge Brown Jackson was confirmed as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit by a vote of 53-44. Scott opposed the confirmation, while Rubio did not vote. Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins voted with the 48 Democrats and two Independents in supporting the nomination.
The vote for the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to take place in mid-April, will only require a simple majority.
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“I think there is possibility that once again you could a few Republicans who will vote for her, but a lot will depend on what happens in the Judiciary Committee in the terms of its questioning and how the senators react to the first black woman ever nominated to the Supreme Court,” Walker said.
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