Slightly Less Partisan Vote in Brown Jackson Confirmation

Three Republican senators joined in the vote to confirm new Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson yesterday, making the vote the least partisan since the 2017 confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined 50 Democrats and Independents in the Senate in order to send the first Black woman to the court in the history of the United States.

According to data compiled from reports by the Washington Post, The New York Times and Politico, the confirmation of Supreme Court justices has become increasingly partisan in the last 20 years. The trend was most pronounced under President Donald Trump. The 2020 confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett was the first Senate vote on a Supreme Court justice in 151 years without any minority party support, according to the New York Times.

Coney Barrett was Trump's third addition to the Supreme Court, but his first replacement of a liberal justice, which tipped the court into a more conservative direction at three liberal and six conservative voices. Justice Stephen Breyer, who Brown Jackson is replacing, acted as a liberal on the Supreme Court, meaning that her addition is expected to keep the existing balance. Former U.S. President Barack Obama had also hoped to make a switch in his party's favor when conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, but the then Republican-controlled Senate blocked a vote for around nine months until Trump was elected, causing controversy about the Republican Party's decision to rush Coney Barrett's vote through just before the 2020 election.

Despite the conservative tilt, the court has recently handed down decisions in favor of, for example, the Affordable Care Act, as conservative Chief Justice John Roberts is seen as having turned into a voice of moderation and Trump appointees have shown their will to vote alongside liberals in several cases.