'talk about the joy'

Cory Booker: Senate on 'precipice of shattering another ceiling' with Jackson SCOTUS hearings

Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson are off to a rip-roaring start, having begun with opening remarks from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

After some focus on the "spectacle" of the hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh and what Republicans expect will be criticism of their questioning this time around, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) opted to take a lighthearted and celebratory approach toward the milestone moment Jackson represents.

"This is not a normal day for America," Booker said. "We have never had this moment before. And I just want to talk about the joy. I know tomorrow and in the coming hearings we're going to have tough, hard questions but please, let me just acknowledge the fact that this is not normal." If confirmed, Jackson will be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

"It's never happened before," Booker continued. "We are on the precipice of shattering another ceiling. ... I just feel this sense of overwhelming joy as I see you sitting there."

Booker also told the story of how Jackson's daughter Leila once wrote former President Barack Obama asking him to nominate her mother to the Supreme Court.

With any luck, the senator continued, Leila's letter would inspire generations of children, "no matter who their parents are," to write to the White House.

"We're gonna see a new generation of children talking about their mamas," he said, "and daring to write to the president of the United States of America that 'my mom should be on the Supreme Court.'" 

"I want to tell your daughter right now that that dream of hers is so close to being a reality."