SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson snags big conservative endorsement

Despite some already-brewing GOP backlash toward her nomination, President Biden's pick for the U.S. Supreme Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson just otherwise secured herself a pretty big conservative endorsement, CNN reports Monday.

Per a statement obtained exclusively by CNN, retired federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, who is "considered a luminary in conservative legal circles," per CNN, wholeheartedly backed Jackson as a nominee who is "eminently qualified to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States," Luttig wrote.

Though the retired judge in his statement called for bipartisan backing of Jackson's candidacy, he said "Republicans, in particular, should vote to confirm Judge Jackson." He also criticized GOP ire toward Biden's pledge to nominate a Black woman as Justice Stephen Breyer's replacement, and urged the party "to confirm Judge Jackson out of political calculation, even if they cannot bring themselves to confirm her out of political magnanimity, and then proudly take the deserved credit for their part in elevating the first black female jurist to the Supreme Court of the United States," per CNN.

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Previously, Luttig was instrumental in providing the "legal ammunition to help [Mike Pence] defy then-President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the election" after outlining on Twitter why the former vice president did not have the constitutional authority to reject electors, CNN writes.

With any luck, Luttig's endorsement "may well dilute some of the far right's criticism of Jackson," considering his respected legal status and "career entrenched in conservative judicial philosophy," CNN notes.