Ms. Collins, considered a moderate Republican, revealed her intention to vote in the Senate to confirm the federal appeals judge in a statement released by her office.
The senator said she reviewed Ms Jackson’s case, watched her testify at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week and met with her twice in person , and that she had concluded that the judge had the “experience, qualifications and integrity” to hold the post life.
Ms Collins lamented what she called a worrying trend towards the politicization of the judicial appointment process.
“No matter where you are on the ideological spectrum, anyone who has watched many of the Supreme Court’s recent confirmation hearings would come to the conclusion that the process is broken,” she said.
“In my opinion, the role that the Constitution clearly assigns to the Senate is to examine the experience, qualifications and integrity of the candidate. It is not to assess whether a candidate reflects the ideology of a senator individual or whether he would govern exactly as an individual senator would want,” Ms Collins added.
Senate Majority Leader Democrat Chuck Schumer said last week the chamber was “on track” to confirm Jackson to the post life before his scheduled Easter break on April 8. Senator Joe Manchin, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, announced last Friday that he would vote to confirm her, signaling that she will have the votes needed to overcome widespread Republican opposition.
With a simple majority needed for confirmation and the Senate split 50-50 between the parties, Ms. Jackson will get the job if Democrats stay united, regardless of how Republicans vote.
Her confirmation would not alter the ideological balance of the court – it has a 6-3 conservative majority – but would allow Biden to freshen up his liberal bloc with a 51-year-old jurist young enough to serve for decades. The Democratic president nominated Ms Jackson last month to take over from retiring Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.
During her confirmation hearing, several Republican senators accused Ms. Jackson of being lenient when she was a trial judge for the conviction of child sex offenders. Jackson defended her conviction case, and witnesses from the American Bar Association dismissed allegations that she was “soft on crime.”
