Highlights from Senate vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson

Judge Jackson faces another round of all-day questions on Wednesday from the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she will need a majority of senators to approve her Supreme Court nomination out of committee before it sees a full floor vote.

Because the committee did not finish its first round of questioning on Tuesday, it will pick back up at 9 a.m. with 30-minute rounds from Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Notably, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., traded spots with Tillis to go Tuesday evening, when she asked the Supreme Court nominee to provide a definition for "woman."

While Democrats have used the hearings to give Jackson a chance to defend her record and display her personal side, Republicans have so far played to long-running culture wars, with Sen. Ted Cruz asking Biden's nominee about critical race theory and Sen. Lindsey Graham probing her faith, he said, to make a point about how Democrats scrutinized Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

For the second round of questioning, each of the committee's 11 Republican and 11 Democratic members will then have up to 20 minutes to question Jackson one on one in order of seniority.

On Thursday, senators can ask questions of the American Bar Association and other outside witnesses.

Judge Jackson took questions for nearly 13 hours Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee -- where Democrats hailed her for breaking barriers and Republicans attempted to brand her as "soft on crime” -- but Jackson refused to play into political fights and vowed repeatedly to “stay in my lane.”

In several tense exchanges with Republicans on the committee, Jackson defended her record as both a lawyer and a judge.

She called her service as a federal public defender -- including defense of accused terrorists held without charge at Guantanamo Bay -- an act of "standing up for the constitutional value of representation." Faced with allegations she was too lenient on child pornography offenders, Jackson stressed that she followed federal sentencing guidelines set by Congress and got emotional when talking about reviewing evidence in what she called “heinous” and "egrigous" crimes.

Jackson also resisted repeated attempts to classify her “judicial philosophy,” claiming she doesn’t have one, but she did lay out a "methodology" she’s developed for approaching each case: proceed from a position of neutrality, evaluate the facts, and apply the law to facts in the case.

Asked also about same-sex marriage, abortion, and the right to own a gun in the home, Jackson said the Supreme Court has established those rights and that she is bound to stare decisis as a jursist.

Read more key takeaways from Tuesday’s session here.

-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer

An unflappable Jackson endured over 12 hours of questioning on Tuesday.

Multiple senators pressed her on her decisions in sentencing defendants in child porn cases.

The judge also addressed crime, abortion, gender, critical race theory and her representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Jackson's confirmation hearing will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday to wrap up first-round questioning from two remaining senators: Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. The hearing then moves on to the second round of questions.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who is pro-life, brought up abortion, asking Jackson, "Can you explain to me, on a constitutional basis, the court's decision in Roe -- and where is abortion protected in the constitution?

Jackson acknowledged abortion isn't mentioned in the Constitution. But she stressed, "Abortion is a right that the Supreme Court has recognized is one of the kinds of rights that is unenumerated."

The Supreme Court is set to take up one of the largest threats to abortion protections guaranteed by Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey with their consideration of Dobbs v. Jackson's Women's Health Organization, a challenge to a Mississippi law that bans nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Jackson told Blackburn, "Whatever the Supreme Court decides in Dobbs will be the precedent of the Supreme Court. It will be worthy of respect in the sense that it is the precedent and I commit to treating it as I would any other precedent."

Blackburn also asked the nominee about gender, first asking if she thinks "schools should teach children that they can choose their gender." Jackson declined to comment.

When Blackburn asked Jackson if she could define the word "woman," she replied, "Not in this context -- I'm not a biologist."

"In my work as a judge, what I do is I address disputes. If there is a dispute about a definition, people make arguments and I look at the law and I decide," Jackson said.

Blackburn also asked about transgender athletes, mentioning a collegiate transgender swimmer who recently won a women's 500-yard freestyle event. Blackburn said, "What message do you think this sends to girls who aspire to compete and win in sports at the highest levels?"

"I'm not sure what message that sends," Jackson said. "If you're asking me about the legal issues, those are topics that are being hotly discussed, as you say, and could come to the court."

-ABC News' Brittany Shepherd