Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is receiving another major endorsement from a prominent Republican on Tuesday, this time a lawyer who represented President Donald Trump’s former White House counsel, Donald McGahn, among other former Trump White House officials.
Lawyer William Burck, in a statement obtained exclusively by CNN, said of Jackson that “no serious person can question her qualifications to the Court and to my mind her judicial philosophy is well within the mainstream.”
Burck’s statement comes in the wake of similar endorsements by retired conservative judges J. Michael Luttig and Thomas B. Griffith, Republican appointees, who both sat on federal appeals courts. Their messages run contrary to some heated comments made by Republicans on the hill after President Joe Biden announced his pick last Friday and could serve to lower the temperature on the hearings that are expected this spring.
The White House is in the midst of a carefully orchestrated rollout of the President’s nominee and will welcome the endorsement. While every White House tries to present their nominees in the best possible light – this White House composed of veterans of the confirmation process – has been particularly comprehensive. Biden served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Vice President Kamala Harris also sat on the committee more recently during confirmation battles. Ron Klain – a veteran of confirmation fights – serves as Biden’s chief of staff and White House counsel Dana Remus is a former clerk to Justice Samuel Alito.
Even before the President made his choice, White House surrogates reached out to outside groups urging them to be ready to support the nomination. Remus, who usually stays behind the scenes, conducted a video call with supporters hours after the nomination was announced. She also warned them there would be attacks and some would be “disheartening,” but she urged them to support Jackson.
Burck, in his statement, stressed that Jackson should receive bipartisan support and her nomination should not trigger an angry confirmation fight.
“As a Republican, I hope Judge Jackson will garner substantial bipartisan support because she deserves to be judged on her personal merits which overwhelmingly weigh in favor of confirmation,” Burck said.
“Too often over the past several decades, Supreme Court nominations have descended into bitter partisan conflict and we lose sight of the most important qualities in a jurist,” he added. “Judge Jackson presents an opportunity to refocus on what matters – the nominee’s integrity, qualifications and