Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., asked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to explain her widely cited, Trump-era decision that said, “Presidents are not kings.”
In 2019, Jackson ruled on a dispute between House Democrats and the Trump administration that involved lawmakers’ attempts to subpoena former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress. House Democrats wanted to ask McGahn questions about former President Donald Trump and his use of presidential power amid special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The U.S. Constitution was built to “prevent tyranny,” Jackson told Ossoff, during the third day of her confirmation hearings March 23.
Jackson then described how the Constitution draws distinct boundaries around the powers of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government without overlap and operating “within their own sphere.”
“The separation of powers is crucial to liberty,” she said. “It is what our country is founded on.”
If this precedent is undermined, Jackson said the government can become “too powerful” and encroach on “individual liberty.”
Wednesday was senators’ final day to question Jackson, who was nominated by President Joe Biden in February to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. If confirmed, she will be the first Black woman on the high court. On the final day of the hearings March 24, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear from friends and colleagues of Jackson about her temperament and approach to the law.
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