Cotton questions SCOTUS nominee Jackson over her reduction of the prison sentence of a convicted drug kingpin

Sen. Tom Cotton questioned SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson over her reduction of the prison sentence of a convicted drug dealer.

Video Transcript

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON: The fact that between the 20-year sentence that I gave him originally and the compassionate release motion that he filed, Congress changed the law. Congress decided that the old penalty, the old crime, was no longer eligible for the increased, so that a person who was convicted at the time of his compassionate release motion for doing exactly what Mr. Young had done would not get a 20-year sentence. That would not be lawful for a person at that moment.

And one of the things that Congress says to the judges is care about unwarranted sentencing disparity. Care about the fact that the person you're sentencing is being treated differently than someone else who committed exactly the same crime. And I understand it wasn't retroactive in the sense that everybody, absent a compelling-- absent a compassionate release motion, wouldn't have been eligible for resentencing, but here I have a defendant before me, and all of the factors that Congress has asked me to take into account, and a compelling argument that there were extraordinary and compelling circumstances that is a change in the law that would create unwarranted sentencing disparity if I didn't take account of it. And so what I determined under those circumstances is that I would sentence-- resentence Mr. Young to the penalty that Congress had decided was the appropriate penalty for the conduct that he committed as of the time of his motion.

TOM COTTON: Judge, Congress did change the law after a sentencing in the first step back. That was a terrible mistake. Congress specifically did not make that change retroactively.

And you saw that, and you thought it was extraordinary and compelling. Even though Congress specifically did not make it retroactive, you chose to rewrite the law because you were sympathetic to a fentanyl drug kingpin whom you had expressed frustration at having sentenced him to his cr-- to his 20-year sentence in the first place. You twisted the law and you rewrote it, so you could cut the sentence of a drug kingpin. That's what you did, Judge.

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON: Respectfully, Senator, I disagree.