The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked along partisan lines in its vote on whether to advance the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, forcing a rare procedural move to keep her on track for confirmation this week as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. 

Even as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was forced to file what’s known as a discharge petition to allow the final vote, two additional Republican senators said they would support her confirmation, with Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah joining Susan Collins of Maine as “yes” votes. 

Jackson is the first Supreme Court nominee in 169 years to require a discharge petition to move on to the full Senate, according to Politico. The move requires debate in the full Senate and a vote on the motion that can pass with a simple majority. It was approved with 53 votes Monday, and senators expect to continue with the usual process of debating and voting on Jackson’s confirmation, which Democrats still hope to complete by Friday.

The Judiciary Committee’s vote came 11 days after the conclusion of its four-day confirmation hearings for Jackson. A number of Senate Republicans attempted to paint Jackson as a radical who is soft on crime as they questioned her sentencing record and her position on the board of a school that teaches about race and racism. Democrats sought to highlight the breadth of Jackson’s personal and professional experiences and the value they will add to the court.

Schumer has issued discharge petitions for other people nominated by President Joe Biden, including Kristen Clarke, now the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice, and two recently appointed appellate court judges, Holly Thomas and Jennifer Sung. The discharge requirement in Jackson’s case reflects the increasingly contentious environment surrounding recent Supreme Court nominees. During the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the court in 2020, Democratic Judiciary Committee members boycotted the vote to advance her.

Less than a year ago when she was considered for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Jackson received support from three Republicans: Collins, Murkowski and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Graham has said he will vote against Jackson’s confirmation, calling the judge “evasive” and stating that she has a “flawed sentencing methodology.” A number of other Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said they will vote no on Jackson. 

Murkowski, in a Monday statement, cited Jackson’s experience as a public defender and a judge, as well as her clerkship for Justice Stephen Breyer, whom she is set to replace. The Alaska senator, who is up for reelection this year, also decried the “politicization” of the confirmation process.

“My support rests on Judge Jackson’s qualifications, which no one questions; her demonstrated judicial independence; her demeanor and temperament; and the important perspective she would bring to the court as a replacement for Justice Breyer,” Murkowski said. 

“While I have not and will not agree with all of Judge Jackson’s decisions and opinions, her

approach to cases is carefully considered and is generally well-reasoned,” she added, saying Jackson answered questions about Alaska and Alaska Natives “satisfactorily.” 

Romney in a Monday statement called Jackson “a well-qualified jurist and a person of honor.” He congratulated Jackson on her expected confirmation and said she “more than meets the standard of excellence and integrity.” 

Collins said that her vote is not on whether she would agree with Jackson, saying she has not agreed all the time with any of the six justices she has voted to confirm.

“In my meetings with Judge Jackson, we discussed in depth several issues that were raised in her hearing,” Collins wrote in a statement last week. “Sometimes I agreed with her; sometimes I did not.  And just as I have disagreed with some of her decisions to date, I have no doubt that, if Judge Jackson is confirmed, I will not agree with every vote that she casts as a Justice.  

On the Democratic side, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has been a wild card for a number of Biden’s policy efforts but has supported all the president’s judicial nominees and confirmed that he will vote for Jackson.

Much of Jackson’s hearings last month were consumed with questions about her criminal sentencing decisions. Bolstered by accusations launched by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, multiple Republicans repeatedly asked Jackson about sentences that they deemed to be too lenient in several cases involving materials depicting child sex abuse. 

Multiple news fact checkers and legal experts have said that federal sentencing guidelines for these types of cases are outdated and Jackson’s sentences aligned with other judges at that time. Jackson attempted to explain that judges are tasked with considering a variety of factors to issue a sentence that is “not greater than necessary to promote the purposes of punishment.”

The hearings also gave Jackson a chance to explain her judicial methodology, which she said she developed from practice as a federal trial court judge. Her approach includes clearing her mind of personal feelings, considering all of the relevant factors, then interpreting and applying the law to the facts of the case.

In a lighter moment during the proceedings, Jackson mentioned that she took up crocheting to have a creative outlet for the stressors of life. She also teared up when speaking about her efforts to connect with young people.

“I hope to inspire people to try to follow this path, because I love this country,” she said. “Because I love the law. Because I think it is important that we all invest in our future. And the young people are the future, and so I want them to know that they can do and be anything.”

Following the hearings, Democrats have received some criticism from writers and academics that they did not do enough to defend Jackson. 

“The strongest advocate for Judge Jackson was Judge Jackson. That woman showed such extraordinary strength and it came as no surprise,” Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, told reporters last week. “I didn’t want to step in there and look like I was propping her up. I didn’t have to.”