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Pa.’s Toomey meets with Ketanji Brown Jackson, concerned whether she’ll ‘serve as a neutral umpire of the law’
Pennsylvania’s outgoing Republican United States senator isn’t a “no” vote for President Joe Biden’s pick for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Yet.
But U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, of Lehigh County, said Thursday he “[continues] to have concerns” about whether Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson “will serve as a neutral umpire of the law.”
Toomey, who met with Jackson on Thursday morning, said in a statement released after the session in his Capitol Hill office, that he “[looks] forward to further reviewing her record before arriving at a final decision.”
Toomey, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, and a frequent White House critic, is retiring this fall.
Pennsylvania’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Bob Casey Jr., of Scranton, is already a “yes” vote.
Jackson “has spent her career fighting for a more equitable and just America and will carry that vision on the Supreme Court. She comes to this position with a breadth of experience and an unwavering dedication to the law. I am honored to support her nomination,” Casey said in a Feb. 25 statement, according to the Washington Post.
Ketanji Brown Jackson wins bipartisan support for U.S. Supreme Court with Collins’ backing
The Post’s latest tally shows Jackson with 46 votes in favor of her confirmation, 16 opposed, and 38 unknown.
On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, smoothed Jackson’s path to the nation’s highest court, becoming the first Republican to announce she’d support her confirmation, the Capital-Star previously reported. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a frequent White House spoiler, also is a “yes” vote, according to the Post.
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