Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing: Day 2

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's second day of confirmation hearings and first full day of questioning featured explanations of her approach as a judge, discussions of abstract legal concepts that can be pivotal in controversial Supreme Court cases, and her defense of a sentencing record that Republicans have claimed wasn't adequately harsh on certain crimes.

Democrats gave Jackson plenty of opportunity to push back on the GOP attacks, while letting her discuss the background that will make her a unique addition to the Supreme Court.

Republicans, who on Monday vowed to take a high-minded tone in the proceedings, nonetheless grilled her on the issues that resonate with their culture war messaging ahead of this year's midterms.

Tomorrow, the third day of confirmation hearings will start at 9 a.m. ET and the remaining two senators from the panel — Democrat Jon Ossoff of Georgia and GOP Thom Tillis of North Carolina — will have 30 minutes to ask questions. Then, committee members are expected to be be allowed 20 minutes each for a second round of questioning.

Here's a look at some key takeaways from Tuesday's session:

Jackson gives a view into how she approaches her job: Facing GOP skepticism for not aligning herself with a specific judicial philosophy, Jackson gave new details about the way she approaches her job and the "methodology" she uses for deciding a case.

"I am acutely aware that as a judge in our system I have limited power and I am trying in every case to stay in my lane," she said.

The three-step process she described involved clearing her mind of any preconceived notions about the case, receiving the various inputs — the written briefs, the factual record, the hearings — she'll need to decide a case, and embarking on an interpretation of the law that hews to "the constraints" on her role as a judge.

She said she was trying to "to figure out what the words mean as they were intended by the people who wrote them."

Jackson pushes back on claims about her record on child porn cases: The judge finally had the chance on Tuesday to address what have been the most contentious allegations levied against her, telling the committee of claims she's soft on child porn offenders that "nothing could be further from the truth."

"These are some of the most difficult cases that a judge has to deal," Jackson said when she was first given the chance by Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin to respond to the claims, which were spearheaded last week by Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley.

Later on in the hearing, she said she still has nightmares about the witness in one of the cases Republicans are now scrutinized, adding, "These crimes are, are horrible. And so I take them very seriously, just as I did all of the crimes, but especially crimes against children."

Republicans have zeroed in on what they say is Jackson's tendency to issue sentences in these cases that came below the sentencing guidelines -- a pattern that puts her in the mainstream of judges. Less than a third of the sentences issued in non-production child pornography cases fell within the guidelines in 2019.

When she was being grilled by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, Jackson noted that the guidelines are just a starting point for judges.

GOP leans into culture war issues ahead of midterms: Broad culture war topics that Republicans are hitting Democrats on ahead of the midterms made their way into GOP questions for Jackson.

Cruz, for example, asked Jackson several questions about "critical race theory" — a concept that Jackson said "doesn't come up in my work."

"It's never something that I have studied or relied on, and it wouldn't be something that I would rely on if I was on the Supreme Court," she said.

Cruz tried to connect it to Jackson through a presentation she made as vice chair of the US Sentencing Commission, in which Jackson said she listed it among a "laundry list of different academic disciplines that I said relate to sentencing policy." He also raised it in the context of children's books taught at Georgetown Day School, where Jackson is on the board. Jackson said that board does not control the school's curriculum.

Abstract questions try to hint how she would approach controversial cases: GOP senators probed Jackson's approach to abstract legal ideas that sound academic but that could be pivotal in how she'd decide controversial cases.

Cornyn raised the concept of "unenumerated rights" — meaning the rights not explicitly written in the Constitution's text but that the court has interpreted to be covered by the Constitution's protections.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee likewise focused some of his questioning on the 9th Amendment. Its language contemplates unenumerated rights, and he asked Jackson how judges should go about weighing what rights could flow from it.

• Read more takeaways here.
• See photos from the hearing here.
• Listen to CNN's David Chalian break down some of the highlights on today’s CNN Political Briefing podcast.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said that he is “hopeful” Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will receive bipartisan support.

“She's doing a fine job,” said Durbin on Tuesday night in a new conference after the second day of confirmation hearings. “I'm hopeful that we’ll receive bipartisan support. But I know that the Democrats feel that the President made an extraordinary choice.”

Asked by CNN’s Lauren Fox whether Jackson needs to push back harder against Republican charges that she has been too lenient in sentencing child pornography cases, Durbin said Jackson had already “covered that ten different ways.”

“For those who want to listen, she’s given the answer,” added Durbin. The Illinois Democrat said that sentencing those cases is an “extraordinary challenge for every judge because Congress won’t touch this hot-button issue” and update its guidance for judges.

“To pick this out, and to say that this fine lady, this fine mother, this great judge is somehow soft when it comes to child pornography is an incredible statement,” said Durbin. “The people who are making it are just sticking with it, even as their approaches are being discredited.”

More context: Democrats can confirm Jackson to the high court on the strength of their narrow Senate majority, with 50 votes and Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a tie. The party does not need any Republican support for successful confirmation, but if any Republicans do vote to confirm, it would give the White House a chance to tout a bipartisan confirmation.

It's not yet clear, however, whether Jackson will receive any votes from Republicans.

When the Senate voted to confirm her last year to fill a vacancy on a powerful DC-based appellate court, three Republican senators voted with Democrats in favor: Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

CNN's Clare Foran and Alex Rogers contributed reporting to this post.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said that her love of law from an early age is why she would be honored to serve on the Supreme Court.

During today's confirmation hearing, Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, asked Jackson about why wants the job. "There's a very fundamental question that hasn't been asked," Padilla said.

"Fundamentally what this hearing is today, it's a job interview. It's a very public and very thorough job interview, as it should be... the first question I have for you is, so why would you want this job?"

Jackson said that her father, going back to law school when she was a young girl, inspired her passion for the law and that serving on the Supreme Court would be an honor.

"I've spoken many times about the fact that I came to love the law starting as early as four years old watching my dad study when he went back to law school when I was a child and I honestly never thought that there was anything that one could really do because I was so enamored of my father and so proud of his decision to follow his dream after I was born," Jackson said.

"And so if you're a lawyer and if you believe in public service, which was a core family value for my family, then becoming a judge is certainly an option and that one pursues and then of course being on the Supreme Court is the capstone of a life in public service, and I would be so honored by the opportunity to use my time and talent in this way," the nominee continued.

Facing GOP skepticism for not aligning herself with a specific judicial philosophy,  Ketanji Brown Jackson gave new details about the way she approaches her job and the "methodology" she uses for deciding a case.

"I am acutely aware that as a judge in our system I have limited power and I am trying in every case to stay in my lane," she said.

The three-step process she described involved clearing her mind of any preconceived notions about the case, receiving the various inputs — the written briefs, the factual record, the hearings — she'll need to decide a case, and embarking on an interpretation of the law that hews to "the constraints" on her role as a judge.

She said she was trying to "to figure out what the words mean as they were intended by the people who wrote them."

This description of her methodology was not enough to satisfy Republican questions about her judicial philosophy.

But what does this term mean and why has it come up so often today? It refers to the type of framework a judge uses to analyze a case of constitutional interpretation. An originalist approach, which is favored by conservatives, seeks to interpret the Constitution by how the framers would have understood the words at the time they were drafted.

Some progressives have sought to chart what has been called a "Living Constitution" approach, which seeks to interpret the general principles in the Constitution in a way that is applicable to contemporary circumstances.

Even as she answered Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse's questions about the dueling approaches, Jackson declined to explicitly align herself with one or the other, noting that constitutional interpretation did not come up every often in the cases she was deciding as a lower court judge.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been answering questions from senators for more than 12 hours on day two of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Jackson has fielded questions on an array of topics from her record on crime, her judicial philosophy and her family background.

So far, she has been questioned by more than a dozen senators during today's hearing.

More on today's hearing: Senators may ask questions of the nominee for 30 minutes each, according to the schedule outlined by the committee. The questioning is expected to stretch late into the evening. On Wednesday, lawmakers will be allowed 20 minutes each for a second round of questioning.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin told reporters as he left the confirmation hearing for the dinner break that the issue of sentencing guidelines was the responsibility of Congress and that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson "did the right thing."

"She's doing what 80% of the judges across America do, because Congress, Congress has not done its job. That's the one thing that Republicans just won't concede," he said. 

Asked about Hawley's claim that Jackson seemed sympathetic to the defendant in the child sex abuse images case the Missouri Republican brought up, Durbin replied, "She did the right thing. It's a tough job. And under the circumstances, we didn't help. Congress dropped the ball, still has for 15 years plus."

"So you know, I don't think they'll ever concede that point. But she's not alone. And she's certainly not unique. 80% of the judges across America are going exactly through the same thing that she's gone through," he added.

On whether Hawley's line of questioning would affect Republican swing votes, Durbin said, "No, I don't think it will change a single Republican vote."

After using it for most of the day as a refrain on several occasions to describe how she approaches her job as a judge, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson — in response to a question from Louisiana GOP Sen. John Kennedy — explained what she means when she says that she seeks to "stay in her lane."

"What I mean is that in our system of government, under the Constitution, we have a separation of powers and each branch has their own sphere of responsibility. To say 'stay in your lane' is the shorthand that I'm using for indicating that judges should not be policymakers. That those responsibilities are left to the elected branches. And that judges are to interpret the law, not make the law. And I use it to refer to the part of my methodology that is mindful of the constraints on judicial authority."

Jackson has used the phrase multiple times in the hearing, starting in the early question she got about her methodology as a judge, as well as when she explained why she wouldn't answer questions about court packing.

Given the opportunity to do so by Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, Ketanji Brown Jackson discussed her family background, at times getting emotional when speaking about the values her family instilled in her and the lessons she learned from them to press forward.

She recalled how her parents went to historically Black colleges after attending segregated lower schools, and how their “hard work” taught her “perseverance.”

“My parents moved to Washington, DC, because this is where it all started, for them, in terms of having new freedoms,” she told Booker, the committee's sole Black member,  referring to the “sea change” for African Americans when civil rights legislation passed in the 1960s.

"I was born here, on that hope and dream. I was born here with an African name that my parents gave me to, to demonstrate their pride, their pride in who they were and their pride and hope in what I could be," she continued.

Of her grandparents, she said that they were the “hardest working people I've ever known and who just got up every day, put one foot after the other and provided for their families and made sure that their children went to college, even though they never had those opportunities.”

She said that in this “historic moment” of her Supreme Court nomination she reflects on them and that “I stand on the shoulders of people from that generation.”

"And I focus at times on my faith when I'm going through hard times. Those are the kinds of things that I learned from my grandmother who used to have those family dinners and bring us all together," she told committee.

Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, praised Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's background and record during today's hearing.

Booker noted that Jackson's nomination is supported by many groups including law enforcement agencies and Republican and Democrat judges. He said that he "trusts" Jackson with the the safety of his family and state.

"Law enforcement family, mother of two, law enforcement organization after law enforcement organization, victims advocacy organizations after victims advocacy organizations. Republican appointed judges, Democratic appointed judges — that's who is in your corner. We're politicians, we have sworn the oath right now. I've just watched you with dignity and grace, field what I can only imagine is, behind those questions, is this doubt that is being sown, I just want America to know that when it comes to my family's safety, when it comes to Newark, New Jersey, or my state — God I trust you. I trust you," Booker said.