Wisconsin’s Republican senator had previously voted for Judge Jackson’s nomination to a federal judgeship.
As expected, Wisconsin’s two US senators differed Thursday when the final vote was taken on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first Black woman elevated to justice on the US Supreme Court.
Democrat Tammy Baldwin, first in the alphabetical roll call, gave an enthusiastic “aye,” while Republican Ron Johnson could not be heard on TV microphones as he voted “no.”
Three Republican senators joined all 50 Democrats in supporting Judge Jackson. The bipartisan vote is a rebuke of right-wing attempts to portray her as something other than highly qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court, especially since more than two-dozen of the Republicans opposing her—including Johnson—had previously voted to approve her nomination to serve on the federal bench in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Jackson will replace Justice Stephen Breyer when he retires this summer at the end of the court’s current session.
