states supreme court is judge ketanji brown jackson. reporter: president biden nominated jackson last month to replace retiring justice stephen breyer, a mentor for whom she served as a law clerk. justice breyer, the members of the senate will decide if i fill your seat, but please know that i could never fill your shoes. reporter: jackson graduated from harvard, both undergraduate and law school and became a judge on the federal district court in washington, d.c. beginning in 2013. if confirmed, she would not only be the first black woman on the court, but also the only current justice with significant experience working in criminal defense. i had the privilege of serving as a federal public defender. congratulations on your nomination. thank you very much. reporter: since her
nomination she s been meeting with lawmakers on capitol hill. i m not here on a mission to destroy the affordable care act. reporter: recent hearings have been marked bipartisan divides and contentious exchanges. you re saying there s never been a case where you drank so much that you didn t remember the what happened the night before? you re asking about blackout. have you? reporter: mitch mcconnell signaled this time around the gop s focus will be on jackson s approach to the law. she s clearly a sharp lawyer with an impressive resume, but when it comes to the supreme court, a core qualification is judicial philosophy. reporter: republican josh hawley who sits on the judiciary committee has attacked jackson as not being tough enough on sex offenders and president biden s campaign pledge to nominate a black woman to the court has drawn criticism from some republicans. jackson pushed back when asked
by republican senator john cornyn last year about the role race plays in her work. i don t think that race plays a role in the kind of judge that i have been and that i would be. i ve experienced life in perhaps a different way than some of my colleagues because of who i am, and that might be valuable reporter: even before jackson became a judge, she tackled inequities in the criminal justice system. as vice chair on the u.s. sentencing commission, jackson and the six other members decided unanimously to lower federal drug sentences. i say justice demands this result. reporter: the reductions had a wide-ranging impact. they were retroactive meaning 30,000 federal prisoners had their sentences lowered. her own family s experience in the criminal justice system could also provide lines of
begin for judge ketanji brown jackson who is the first black woman ever nominated to the u.s. supreme court. democrats have the votes to con confirm jackson on her own m. republicans search for a unified message to oppose her. cnn s paula reid live inside the capitol hearing room with more. what do we expect to hear? reporter: good morning, brianna. in just a few hours judge jackson will take a seat right over my shoulder here across from lawmakers as they make their arguments for and against her confirmation to the supreme court. jackson has a lot of experience in this arena. this will be her fourth confirmation hearing on capitol hill as she has previously been confirmed to the u.s. sentencing commission, the d.c. district court and d.c. circuit court of appeals just last year. my nominee for the united
questioning today. you may have read that i have one uncle who got caught up in the drug trade and received a life sentence. that is true, but law enforcement also runs in my family. in addition to my brother, i had two uncles who served decades as police officers, one of whom became the police chief in my hometown of miami, florida. reporter: president obama commuted the sentence of her uncle, thomas brown, in 2016 after she referred his case to a prominent law firm to handle the clemency petition. the more experiences that can be brought to bear on our only plex legal problems, the better. reporter: last year jackson was confirmed 53-44. senator mitch mcconnell says he expects her to be confirmed even with few republican votes. democrats are hoping to get their confirmation through before a two-week recess on