Ketanji Brown Jackson defends sentencing decisions, says she would recuse from affirmative action case in final contentious day of Senate questions

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson sparred with Republican senators Wednesday in a series of charged, sometimes caustic encounters over their assertions she is a judicial activist who is soft on crime, insisting that she would not be a policymaker on the bench.

Lawmakers raised their voices and repeatedly interrupted Jackson during the final day of questioning in a confirmation process that turned surprisingly bitter. Republicans charged that she was obscuring her record and refusing to answer basic questions about her judicial philosophy. Wednesday’s hearing ended with Jackson defending her sentencing decisions as a trial court judge and having said for the first time that, if confirmed, she would sit out an upcoming affirmative action case because of her ties to Harvard University.