handful of republicans, many of whom have higher aspirations for political office, you have to look at where we are as a country. and that is to say highly divided time. that is a time when a lot of the national politics filtered into that room, and it s going to be a difficult vote for some republicans. democratic votes in the process, flagging senator tillis, whose questions perhaps suggested some support. there and gop colleagues were focused on other things, and they grilg grilled judge jackson on several rulings on child corn child pornographer cases. and how do you think this line of questioning played out yesterday, and how might it affect how the full senate views the nominee? look, the underlying allegation behind those lines of questioning to be clear focused on a handful of sentencing decisions over her years as a
at this hour, a final day of hearings is under way for ketanji brown jackson. they now have a date for a first vote on her nomination, yet republican members on the senate judiciary are essentially asking for more time. igniting a dispute over access to documents related to some of judge jackson s past sentencing decisions. chairman durbin says documents like these have never been requested by the committee before. cnn s chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin joins me for more on this. jeffrey, no matter what republicans ask for or get, as durbin noted, and i think most can agree, nothing the committee sees in these presentencing reports, which is what it is, is like three change the way they ve already decided to vote on her nomination. what is this about and why presentencing reports? well, it s an attempt to embarrass and further extend the discussion of the sentencing in
seen qualified people from all kind of diverse backgrounds who had really no chance. she is shattering a glass ceiling and doing it because she is an extraordinarily qualified human being. senator mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, announced this week that he will vote no on judge jackson s confirmation. he said she should have weighed in on expanding the size of the supreme court, given more details on her judicial philosophy and more of a rationale for some sentencing decisions. what s your response? it s not surprising. look, i voted against donald trump s picks, and i did not have any illusion that mitch mcconnell would support president biden s picks. but the thing to say about the judge is she has already passed through the united states senate three times confirmed two times
0 stems back decades and that is concerning. you wrote your note on the harvard law review on sex crimes. your note is your major academic work on the law review and yours is entitled prevention versus punishment: towards a principled distinction in the restraint of released sex offenders. and in it you argue, and i quote, a recent spate of legislation purports to regulate released sex offenders by requiring them to register with local law enforcement officials, notify community members of their presence, undergo dna testing and submit to civil commitment for an indefinite term. at many courts and commentators herald these laws as valid regulatory measures, others reject them as punitive enactments that violate the rights of individuals who have already been sanctioned for their crimes. under existing doctrine the constitutionality of sex offender statutes depends upon their characterization as essentially preventative rather than punitive. and what you go on to explain is if they
0 activism and advocacy as it concerns sexual predators that stems back decades and that is concerning. you wrote your note on the harvard law review on sex crimes. your note is your major academic work on the law review prevention versus punishment toward a principled distinction in the restraint in it you argue and i quote a recent spate of legislation reports to release sex offenders by requiring them to notify local law enforcement and submit to civil commitment for indefinite term. many say it violates the rights of individuals that have been sanctioned for their crimes. the contusionalty of sex offender statutes depends on their characterization as essentially preventsive rather than punitive. you explain if they re viewed an punitive, they re unconstitutional. if they re preventative, they are not. throughout the course of your note, you argue they should be viewed as punitive and therefore unconstitutional. indeed in the second to last page you go through each of those for ca