Democrat Durbin Reaches Out to Republicans as Supreme Court Hearings Start

Republicans, while pressing the nominee on her record, are pledging to keep the temperature down and not seek payback against President Biden’s nominee, cognizant of the midterm Senate losses Democrats suffered after the bruising and emotional battle over Justice

Brett Kavanaugh

in 2018. Democrats are expected to remain united and are aiming to pick up at least some GOP votes as they work to get the first Black woman high-court nominee confirmed.

“If we can get back to bipartisanship in selecting these justices, that’s good for the court’s future,” Mr. Durbin said in his Senate office, sitting under a painting of Abraham Lincoln. “I want to get my part of this right.”

The proceedings are kicking off after a series of partisan battles that reshaped the confirmation process. Many Democrats declined to even consider supporting Mr. Trump’s picks, while Republicans fumed over the treatment of the nominees.

The feuding dates back years. In 2016, Senate Republican leader

Mitch McConnell

(R., Ky.)  cited the coming election in refusing to hold hearings or votes for Democratic President

Barack Obama’s

nominee,

Merrick Garland.

Later, with Mr. Trump in office, Republicans changed Senate rules to get around a Democratic filibuster and allow a simple majority vote to confirm Justice

Neil Gorsuch,

whom almost all Democrats opposed.

The 2018 nomination fight over Justice Kavanaugh centered on an accusation of sexual misconduct, which he denied. Republicans called it a smear campaign, while Democrats demanded a lengthier investigation than Republicans granted.

Judiciary Committee Democrats, including Mr. Durbin, boycotted the panel vote to advance Justice Amy Coney Barrett, nominated after Justice

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

died less than two months before the 2020 election. Democrats argued that Mr. McConnell, in moving to fill the seat, was contradicting his stance from four years earlier. Mr. McConnell maintained the situation was different.

Iowa Sen.

Chuck Grassley,

the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has pledged that the 11 members on his side of the evenly divided panel will be more decorous toward Judge Jackson than they thought Democrats were for Mr. Trump’s nominees.

“We’re going to be fair, thorough and we’re not going to get in the gutter like the Democrats did with Kavanaugh,” he said, while noting he wasn’t disparaging Mr. Durbin in that statement. “He’s a Midwesterner; he’s more humane. Most of these Democrats are from the shores of our country.”

Some Republicans have signaled a tougher approach. Another committee member, Sen.

Josh Hawley

(R., Mo.) has accused Judge Jackson of being soft on child predators, a characterization the White House called false and that Mr. Durbin said distorts her record.

Mr. Durbin, 77 years old, has served as the No. 2 Democrat since 2005, focusing on immigration policy and voting rights among other issues, but this is his first committee chairmanship. He will lead four days of hearings, starting with statements by senators and the nominee on Monday and questions and answers the next two days, followed by expert testimony on Thursday.

Democrats can confirm Judge Jackson with just their caucus’s votes in the 50-50 Senate, if they remain united, with Vice President

Kamala Harris

able to break a tie. Still, Mr. Durbin, who took the helm of the committee last year, said he has a list of Republicans he is hoping will also back her.

In a sign of the softening mood on Capitol Hill, Mr. Durbin said he is hoping to win over Sen.

Lindsey Graham,

the South Carolina Republican who angrily denounced Democrats during the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh.

“Boy, you all want power,” Mr. Graham said at the time, referring to Democrats. “God, I hope you never get it. I hope the American people can see through this sham.”

Mr. Graham, who has voted to support many of Mr. Biden’s judicial picks—including Judge Jackson when she was nominated to a federal appeals court last year—was disappointed with the president’s choice over a judge from his state whom he wholeheartedly backed. He has since criticized Judge Jackson as being the pick of liberal groups but hasn’t said how he will vote. Mr. Graham’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Durbin has sought to smooth the waters with Mr. Graham, and the two had a beer in Munich at a security conference in February.

After President Biden announced the selection of Judge Jackson to succeed retiring liberal Justice

Stephen Breyer,

one of Mr. Durbin’s first calls was to centrist Republican Sen.

Susan Collins

of Maine, who has supported Judge Jackson in her past confirmations in the Senate and has said she is keeping an open mind. Ms. Collins’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the Jackson confirmation process, disputes have already bubbled up. When Mr. Grassley pushed for more documents from Judge Jackson’s service on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which guides the judiciary on criminal sentencing, Mr. Durbin tried to defuse the issue. Mr. Durbin said he organized a conference call with GOP and Democratic staffers on the committee and the executive director of the commission, a Republican. Mr. Grassley was unsatisfied and has called to see correspondence Judge Jackson wrote and received at the commission.

The often soft-spoken Mr. Durbin was enmeshed in controversy last year after he cut off Republicans during a hearing on a Justice Department nominee. Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) then held up Mr. Biden’s U.S. attorney nominees for eight months. Mr. Durbin apologized and Mr. Cotton released the hold, and the nominees were unanimously confirmed. Mr. Durbin describes the relationship with the likely presidential contender as a work in progress and said he generally tries not to interrupt senators in his hearings.

“This is a gathering of 100 titanic egos sitting in a little boat, and there’s hardly room for us,” Mr. Durbin said of the Senate. “The person who you’re pushing overboard today may be the person who’s going to save your life tomorrow. So you…