WASHINGTON — Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, giving President Joe Biden’s pick bipartisan backing to become the first Black woman justice.
Collins, in a statement released early Wednesday that also called the Supreme Court confirmation process “broken,” became the first and so far only Republican to announce support for Jackson. She is one of three GOP senators who voted last year to confirm Jackson as a federal appeals court judge in Washington.
Collins’ support is significant because it gives Democrats who control the evenly divided Senate a cushion in the event of an absence on their side of the aisle. And it sidesteps the possibility that Vice President Kamala Harris would need to break a tie vote to confirm Jackson to the high court.
