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According to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, has a history of going soft on child porn offenders. Last week, the senator wrote a series of tweets supporting his claims about Judge Jackson’s previous rulings.
Hawley, a constitutional lawyer, stated, “Judge Jackson has yet to address her alarming record on child porn offenders. But rather than ask her questions, the Washington Post is regurgitating White House talking points. Their ‘fact check’ questions & my answers below. Now go ask the person nominated for the Supreme Court.”
Attached to Hawley’s tweet are screenshots of questions and answers with the Washington Post about Judge Jackson’s record.
Additionally, Hawley pointed out that Judge Jackson previously recommended “eliminating the 5-year mandatory minimum sentence for child porn.”
“It’s right there in the report,” he added. “As for the other Commissioners who supported this bad recommendation, they probably shouldn’t be on the Supreme Court either.”
According to a report from The Daily Signal, Judge Jackson issued 585 rulings during her time in the D.C. District Court. Hawley cited seven examples where she significantly reduced sentences for child porn offenders. For example, in U.S. vs. Cooper, Jackson sentenced a sex offender convicted of posting 600 images and videos on the internet to 60 months in prison – allegedly the lowest sentencing length allowed.
Trial lawyer Robert Barnes remarked on Twitter that, “Biden SCOTUS nominee has a history of preferential & friendly sentences for child porn convicts, which makes her popular in the swamp.”
Hawley further lambasted Judge Jackson’s history of questioning whether or not convicts should be forced to register as sex offenders. “She’s suggested public policy is driven by a ‘climate of fear, hatred & revenge,’ against sex offenders,” he stated on Twitter. He was referring to her 1996 Harvard Law Review article in which she argued that the justice system was unfair to sex offenders.
Hawley points out that Jackson’s record shows a judge who is more concerned with social justice issues than doling out equal punishment to convicted felons, particularly those convicted of heinous child porn charges. “I’m concerned that this a record that endangers our children,” Hawley concluded, echoing the thoughts of many Americans who are worried about how Jackson’s nomination, and possible confirmation, to the Supreme Court will affect the United States’ legal landscape.
