Thread by @dsamuelsohn

NEW: All the "productive conversations" Senate Rs say they've had w/ "impressive" & "well-qualified" Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson have yielded plenty of photo ops but no commitments to support her historic SCOTUS nomination. by @WARojas @thisisinsider businessinsider.com/ketanji-brown-…

Jackson has met privately with over a dozen Republican lawmakers since Biden named her as his pick to replace retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. The exhaustive interview process has included lengthy visits w/ members of the Senate Judiciary Committee + D & R leaders.

Sticking points Rs have cited about Jackson include her efforts to reduce mandatory minimum guidelines during her time at the US Sentencing Commission, arguments she made on behalf of Gitmo detainees as a public defender, and her views on the US Constitution.

"How do you know what's missing until we get it all?" Sen. Grassley told reporters at the Capitol when asked what else, specifically, he'd like to examine. He added that Judiciary members already have "500 of her cases to go through" to bone up for her confirmation hearings.

Many maintain, however, that any confirmation fight must not get personal. "I promised her that we would not have any of the Kavanaugh-like circus," Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said he told Jackson. "It should be a dignified and civil procedure."

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who praised Jackson after their meeting on Wednesday but also backs Grassley's records request, declined to predict the final outcome.

"I thought the White House started well on this by saying, yeah, we'll meet with every senator who wants to meet, we'll do the meetings in person," Hawley told @thisisinsider "I would say, 'Keep on that line, give us the documents, and move forward.' But we'll see."

"I'm not talking about that," Lindsey Graham, who favored fellow contender South Carolina District Judge J. Michelle Childs, responded when Insider asked him about meeting with Jackson.

Fellow SC Republican Sen. Tim Scott was also dismissive. "No idea," Scott said when asked about meeting with Jackson before the Judiciary Committee hearings. Scott had favored Childs for the Supreme Court and earlier wrote he was disappointed she wasn't Biden's choice.

GOP Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said playing a part in history is appealing. "I think a lot of people, including me, would love to vote for the first Black woman to go on the court," he said, adding that "judicial philosophy should be the thing that senators are looking it."