The issues GOP senators may focus on during Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearings

Washington — President Biden's announcement Friday of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his historic nominee to the Supreme Court set in motion a confirmation battle in the Senate, where GOP senators have vowed to closely examine Jackson's record before determining whether to support her nomination.

While Jackson does not need backing from Republicans to be confirmed to the nation's highest court if all Democrats support her — Democrats hold 50 seats in the Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris breaks tie votes — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has said he wants the confirmation vote to be bipartisan.

Some GOP senators, like Mitt Romney of Utah, have said they are open to voting to confirm Jackson, but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been critical of her. Examining her nearly nine years on the federal bench, the Republican Senate leader said in a statement that Jackson has published two opinions in her nine months on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and one of her decisions from the district court was reversed by a unanimous three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit.