Republican Susan Collins will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
FILE – Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson meets with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 8, 2022. Collins will vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson, giving Democrats at least one Republican vote and all but assuring that she will become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
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Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine has become the first GOP Senator to announce they’ll vote in favor of elevating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the highest Court in the land.

First reported by The New York Times, the statement from Collins means President Biden will be able to tout the confirmation as bipartisan. 

“After reviewing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s extensive record, watching much of her hearing testimony, and meeting with her twice in person, I have concluded that she possesses the experience, qualifications, and integrity to serve as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court,” Collins said in her statement. “I will, therefore, vote to confirm her to this position.”

With Democrats holding control in the deadlocked 50-50 Senate via Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie breaking vote power, Republican support isn’t necessarily crucial, but it essentially ensures Judge Jackson will become the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.

After moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he’d confirm Jackson, her confirmation became all but certain.

Top police officials support Ketanji Brown-Jackson for Supreme Court
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson meets with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the senior member of the Judiciary Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 3, 2022. Judge Jackson’s confirmation hearing starts March 21. If confirmed, she would be the court’s first Black female justice. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson meets with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the senior member of the Judiciary Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 3, 2022. Judge Jackson’s confirmation hearing starts March 21. If confirmed, she would be the court’s first Black female justice. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson headed for Supreme Court confirmation after Susan Collins voices support

Previously, Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) were the only GOP votes in support of Jackson when she was elevated to a DC-based appellate court last year.

Judge Jackson met with several GOP Senators on Tuesday, seeking their votes. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah has said “she’s intelligent, capable, she’s a lovely person as well and I think a great deal of her.” But he signaled he won’t make an announcement until the day of the vote.

On Monday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin set the committee vote for April 4 to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

“During this hearing, I hope that you will see how much I love our country and the Constitution and the rights that make us free,” Ketanji Brown Jackson said during her opening statement of the confirmation hearings last week.

With all Democrats in line behind Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and the addition of a Republican vote, Jackson’s elevation to the Supreme Court will likely happen following an April 4 vote.

Deon Osborne was born in Minneapolis, MN and raised in Lawton, OK before moving to Norman where he attended the University of Oklahoma. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Media and has...

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