president ronald reagan did. he promised during the campaign he would name the first woman to the bench and now president biden has pledged during his campaign that he would name a black woman to the bench. the leading contender i would say is probably ketanji brown jackson, who has been on the d.c. court of appeals for less than a year, but prior to that was a trial court judge, federal trial court judge for eight years. she served on the sentencing commission as vice chairman during the obama administration. and that was a time when with the assent of republicans and democrats, the commission dramatically reduced sentences for drug offenses. she is, i think, the great, great or great granddaughter of slaves. she is married to a surgeon and as one married to a surgeon, i think that s always a very good thing. and she is the mother of two or two daughters, i think,
provision that s very broad to get a colleague s support. if a judge rewrites the law later because of notions about fairness or equity or common good, that unravels all of our work here in the congress. more importantly, american people should be able to read the law and know what it means. they shouldn t have to ask how a federal judge who disagrees with the law could reinterpret the words on that page. all of this leads to the conclusion as to why we must carefully examine federal judge s records, especially supreme court nominees. judge jackson has served as an assistant public defender. worked in private practice and served on the united states sentencing commission. she also serves as a federal district court judge from 2013 to 2021.
undertook an election process that sought input from both parties. senator grassley and i met with the president who invited us to any nominees we care to do. at the end of the day, the president alone chose you. he s put his faith to deliver justice at the highest level of the court. i share that faith. in announcing your nomination, the president spoke to many reasons you deserve to sit on the high court. he noted the perspective you ll bring as a former mayor of the sentencing commission, the first justice since thurgood marshall, considerable criminal defense experience and the only, the second current justice to serve as a federal trial court judge. he also noted your upbringing and the fact that you come from a law enforcement family. yet despite that shared family experience, despite your record, we ve heard claims that you are, quote, soft on crime. these baseless charges are unfair. a conservative national review columnist called claims brought