Texas, 9 other state AGs sign open letter against Jackson Supreme Court nom: 'soft on crime,' child porn

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Whoopi Goldberg claims Republicans opposing Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination because she's Black

Co-host of ABC's "The View" Whoopi Goldberg claimed Monday that Senate Republicans were opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson because of her race.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his counterparts in nine other states on Monday signed an open letter to the U.S. Senate opposing Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson over what they say is a years-long record of going soft on criminals who possess child pornography.    

The ten state attorneys general signed the letter to Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.  

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, left, and Supreme Court nominee Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson.  (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein; AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

In their letter, the state AGs alleged that Jackson, during her decade-long tenure as a federal district court judge, sentenced abusers far below accepted federal guidelines while casting victims aside. 

They cited three court cases they say demonstrate Brown Jackson’s "unsettling history" of siding with "sexual predators." They also pointed to a 1996 Harvard Law Review note in which she argued that community notification requirements for sex offenders were unfairly punitive toward criminals. 

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During her work on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the AGs noted, Brown Jackson said the "current system of mandatory minimums," as it relates to people who share images of child pornography, "may be excessively severe." 

The AGs said Jackson’s history of being soft on crime suggests, on a deeper level, a supposed "disdain for the recommendation of prosecutors and the political process." 

"[I]t’s an insult to the victims of child exploitation, who are revictimized every time one of Judge Jackson’s prematurely released criminals views, copies, shares or talks about those images," the AGs wrote. 

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listens to questions from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., seen on video display, as she testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on March 22, 2022. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

The attorneys general said Brown’s replacement of Justice Stephen Breyer isn’t merely replacing one liberal with another, but "replacing an old-school progressive with a modern leftist who had demonstrated…shocking leniency toward child pornographers." 

"The United States Senate should do its job and protect the American people from this dangerous nominee," they said. 

In addition to Paxton, the letter was signed by Attorneys General Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas, Lwarence Wasden of Idaho, Todd Rokita of Indiana, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Austin Knudsen of Montana, John O’Connor of Oklahoma, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and Jason Ravnsborg of South Dakota. 

Jackson is on the brink of making history as the third Black justice and only the sixth woman in the court’s history. 

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During her testimony in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the question of Jackson’s sentencing on child pornography cases was the most prominent and harshest line of GOP questioning. GOP Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina all brought up the issue in sometimes confrontational questioning during her confirmation hearings. 

The Biden administration and Democrats have pushed back on these allegations, noting that her sentences are in line with other federal judges. They’ve also touted her endorsement from police organizations like the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police to counter the idea she’s been too soft on criminals. 

 U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 23, 2022 (Getty Images )

Jackson has defended her sentences, saying that current child pornography guidelines were initially created when offenders were sending individual images in the mail, but computers have dramatically changed the landscape. 

Thousands of images can be distributed "with one click," Jackson said. Judges rely on the system that Congress created "to be rational in our dealing with some of the most horrible kinds of behavior." 

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"You can be doing this for 15 minutes, and all of a sudden you are looking at 30, 40, 50 years in prison," Jackson said during her testimony, noting that "every person in all of these chats and documents I sent to jail because I know how serious this crime is." 

Fox News’ Marisa Schultz and Tyler Olson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.