Sen. Lindsay Graham Signals To Be A 'No' Vote On Biden SCOTUS Nominee

The urge for bipartisan support for President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court is not residing with Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC). Sen. Graham voted for Justice Jackson to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year and U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2013. However, as The Hill reports, Graham is signaling a “no” vote once Jackson’s nomination comes to a vote.

When the Biden administration discussed possible nominations, Sen. Graham was squarely behind South Carolina federal district Judge J. Michelle Childs as a potential SCOTUS nominee pick, even going as far as predicting Judge Childs would receive “more than ten Republican votes” if chosen. Now Graham claims “dark-money liberal advocacy groups” derailed her road to the Supreme Court.

From The Hill:

“The reason Michelle Childs is not the nominee is because of a concerted effort by the left to take her down and that doesn’t sit very well with me,” he said in separate remarks last week.

“Here’s the point: I was willing to get probably double-digit Republican support for somebody that would have been in the liberal camp from my state,” he added, referring to Childs. “So they made a political decision to reject bipartisanship and go another way.”

Sen. Graham said Biden “can pick anybody he wants, and I can vote any way I want.” With Graham potentially out, it would leave Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) as potential yes votes. In June 2021, Collins and Murkowski were the only other Republican senators to vote Judge Jackson to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sen. Graham will be breaking with his own Supreme Court voting record if he goes against the nomination. He’s voted yes on every single nominee since 2003. Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has stated there is “no question that Ketanji Brown Jackson has the qualifications to be a Supreme Court justice.”