How Susan Collins and Troy Jackson would evaluate judicial nominees

Judicial Nominations Set Collins and Jackson Apart in Pivotal Maine Senate Race

The future of America's courts — and with them, the fate of abortion rights, gun laws, environmental protections and a range of other consequential issues — rests partly in the hands of whoever wins Maine's U.S. Senate seat this November. The contest between five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, a former president of the Maine Senate, has emerged as a referendum in part on how the next senator should approach lifetime judicial appointments.

The U.S. Constitution grants the Senate the power of "advice and consent" on the roughly 900 federal judge positions filled by the president, including nine Supreme Court justices, appellate judges, district court judges, and members of the U.S. Court of International Trade. Senators from a nominee's home state often play an influential role in recommending candidates. Though the Constitution sets no formal qualifications for judges, the Department of Justice reviews nominees' backgrounds, and the American Bar Association typically issues ratings that many senators weigh heavily.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said that even senators of a different party from the president often defer to a nominee's individual merits. "Lots of times, even if a senator is from a different party than the president, or they want to give some deference to the president as the leader of the country, they might say, 'I'm willing to do it on this particular person because I trust the president's judgment,'" he said.

A 2020 analysis by the Portland Press Herald found that Collins' approval rate for judicial nominations has remained remarkably steady across presidencies. She supported 98% of President Bill Clinton's nominees, 99% of President George W. Bush's, and 94% of President Barack Obama's. According to the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization that tracks Senate judicial votes, Collins approved 95% of President Donald Trump's first-term nominees. That number dropped to 80% under President Joe Biden before rebounding to 94% in Trump's second term so far.

Collins' spokesperson, Blake Kernen, explained the Biden-era dip by noting that the senator still backed more of his judicial picks than any other Republican in the chamber. Kernen said Collins evaluates nominees based on their qualifications, experience and recommendations — not on the political party of the president who nominates them.

Tobias said he could only speculate on what drove the decline. "It wasn't like they were unqualified, so it might just reflect the more partisan nature of the process," he said.

Among Collins' most consequential votes have been those on Supreme Court justices. She voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, a decision that drew intense criticism from reproductive rights advocates when Kavanaugh later joined the majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. She also supported Trump's first nominee, Neil Gorsuch, in 2017, who likewise voted to strike down Roe. Collins broke with her party in 2020 to oppose Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation weeks before the presidential election. She voted to confirm the three most recent Democratic appointees to the court: Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Sotomayor and Kagan dissented from the decision overturning Roe; Jackson joined the court after that ruling.

Kernen emphasized that Collins was the only Republican senator to back all three of those Democratic nominees, pointing to a fourth — Merrick Garland — whose nomination never received a vote.

Jackson, who served as Maine's Senate president before stepping down to run for federal office, brings a different perspective. In Maine, the governor nominates state Supreme Court justices, who must then be confirmed by the state Senate — a process that mirrors the federal system, though state judges serve seven-year terms rather than lifetime appointments.

Jackson said his experience evaluating state-level nominees has prepared him for the federal role. He pledged to scrutinize hearings, submit questions early, and consult with Maine residents before voting. He added that he would not automatically oppose a nominee based on the president's party — a contrast with Graham Platner, the original Democratic Senate candidate whom Jackson replaced last month, who had suggested he would reject all Trump nominees. Jackson pointed to his own record of voting for some judicial picks made by former Republican Gov. Paul LePage.

"I'll vote for them on their merits and whether I believe they'll do a good job," Jackson said.

Because Maine's judicial confirmation process is far less partisan, direct comparisons with Collins are difficult. During the administrations of LePage and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, 21 nominations to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court came before the state Senate. All but two were approved unanimously. Justice Wayne Douglas was confirmed 26-1 in 2023; Justice Julia Lipez was approved 34-1 in 2025. Jackson voted for Douglas; he was no longer in the state Senate when Lipez came up for a vote.

The stakes of these decisions extend well beyond the courtroom. Federal judges shape rulings on gun rights, environmental regulations, the president's war-making authority, election law and campaign finance — and they do so for life, long after the presidents who appointed them have left office.

Kernen said Collins believes it is inappropriate for senators to extract commitments from nominees about how they would rule on specific cases. Quoting the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's 1993 confirmation hearing, Kernen said, "It is not appropriate for judicial nominees to offer forecasts or hints that would prejudge any issue that could come before him or her."

Jackson's campaign offered a more pointed response. "While Susan Collins votes for Trump's judicial nominees 95% of the time and cast critical votes confirming the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and ripped away millions of women's reproductive rights, Troy will always stand up and fight for Maine," a campaign spokesperson said in a statement. The campaign did not say whether Jackson would ever ask nominees for pre-confirmation commitments.

The candidates also differ on the structure of the Supreme Court itself. Six of the nine current justices were appointed by Republican presidents, including three by Trump. Democrats have increasingly floated the idea of expanding the court to 13 seats to counter what they view as an entrenched conservative majority. Collins opposes such a move. "Justice Ginsberg noted in 2019 that we have had nine justices for a very long time and that seems to be a good number," Kernen said, adding that Collins also agrees with Ginsburg's view that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to expand the court was a mistake.

Jackson's campaign did not respond to questions about whether he supports expanding the Supreme Court.

As Election Day approaches, judicial philosophy has emerged as one of the clearest fault lines separating the two candidates — and one with implications that could outlast either of their careers in the Senate.