Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson denies GOP claims that she is soft on child porn

PHOTO CREDIT: By Wikicago - Own work

The charge was leveled against Jackson by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in a March 16 tweet thread. On the second day of her confirmation hearings, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson denied the charges that she was too lenient with child porn offenders.

Asked about the allegations by Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday, Jackson explained her reasoning for giving lighter sentences, while refusing to refute the assertion that she had done so.

Jackson stated that sentencing guidelines based on child pornography received by mail have been challenged by the advent of the internet.

“The guideline was based originally on a statutory scheme and specific directives by Congress, at a time when more serious child porn offenders were identified based on the volume, based on the number of photographs that they received in the mail,” Jackson said.

“That made total sense before—when we didn’t have the Internet, when we didn’t have distribution,” Jackson continued. “But the way the guideline is now structured, based on that set of circumstances, is leading to extreme disparities in the system because it’s so easy for people to get volumes of this kind of material now by computers.

“So it’s not doing the work of differentiating who is a more serious offender the way that it used to,” Jackson said. “So the commission has taken that into account, and perhaps even more importantly, courts are adjusting their sentences in order to account for the changed circumstances. But it says nothing about the court’s view of the seriousness of this offense.”

Psaki told reporters at a White House press conference on March 17 that Jackson's record related to child sex offenders was largely consistent with government sentencing recommendations.

22 March 2022