GOP Senator who defended Brett Kavanaugh accuses Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of being soft on sex crimes

We need the highly qualified former public defender on the bench.

Republicans were (obviously) going to try and sink any judge that Democrats nominated to the Supreme Court, but the attacks on the highly qualified Ketanji Brown Jackson are impressive in their brazen disrespect for the Constitution. It’s a document, from long ago, that guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a fair public trial and legal representation. The Republican National Committee and Mitch McConnell have slammed her for her legal counsel to Guantanamo inmates.

And Rep. Josh Hawley is going for the Pizzagate GOP contingent by accusing Jackson of being soft on sex crimes. “Judge Jackson has opined there may be a type of ‘less-serious child pornography offender.’ … ’A ‘less-serious’ child porn offender?” he Tweeted Wednesday. As the Associated Press noted, she did no such thing, but rather asked questions in order to understand a complex phenomenon, a pretty important quality in a Supreme Court justice.

“So I’m wondering whether you could say that there is a — that there could be a — less-serious child pornography offender who is engaging in the type of conduct in the group experience level?” she asked the expert witness. “They’re very sophisticated technologically, but they aren’t necessarily that interested in the child pornography piece of it?”

Speaking of asking questions about sex crimes: during the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, Hawley decried Democrats for waging a “circus” by interrogating him about allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he and a friend sexually assaulted her when they were in high school.

“Have you ever seen anything like this in your life?” Hawley said. “I mean, it is unbelievable. If you want to get a picture of what our future is going to be like after November if the Democrats take back control of the House and the Senate, just go turn on your television right now.”

Got it. It’s wrong to try and punish a man for life for allegations from his past.

Also Josh Hawley: “As far back as her time in law school, Judge Jackson has questioned making convicts register as sex offenders,” he said in a tweet Wednesday. The sex offender registry freezes out accused sex offenders from jobs, housing, everything—lifelong ostracism. “Laws aimed at people convicted of sex offenses may not protect children from sex crimes but do lead to harassment, ostracism and even violence against former offenders, Human Rights Watch has concluded.

In law school, according to the AP, Jackson signed a letter suggesting more judicial discretion in putting people on the life-long sex registry.

"In the current climate of fear, hatred, and revenge associated with the release of convicted sex criminals, courts must be especially attentive to legislative enactments that ‘use public health and safety rhetoric to justify procedures that are, in essence, punishment and detention.”

In the grand scheme of shameless GOP obstructionism, Hawley’s hypocrisy is not remotely surprising. Hopefully, his posturing is more about the midterms than truly keeping Jackson off the court. That would be a real shame. Much is made of the fact that she’ll be the first Black woman on the court, but her history as a public defender on the bench also makes her highly unique and a necessary addition.

I previously interviewed Judge Nancy Gertner, who oversaw criminal trials for 17 years and now teaches at Harvard Law School, about what public defenders bring to the bench:

Judge Gertner: One thing is, judges have to evaluate the credibility of police all of the time, when it comes to motions to suppress, etc. Once I talked to a colleague who said he doesn’t believe officers lie.

Based on his experience at work and in life, that’s what he concluded. But I’d been a criminal defense lawyer. My threshold for evaluating trustworthiness … if you don’t envision that someone could be lying, you’re not looking carefully enough.

Once as a defense attorney I was visiting a client in prison when the doors jammed. I wanted to remember that moment. It’s easier to say ‘10 years’ when you’ve never visited anyone on the inside. I did not want to forget and stop understanding the system’s unfairness.

The confirmation hearing begins Monday.