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WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AP) - The Senate Judiciary Committee opened Supreme Court confirmation hearings Monday, with Republicans promising pointed questions for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and Democrats full of praise for the first black woman nominated for the nation's highest court.Jackson, 51, was to give her opening statement Monday and answer questions today and tomorrow from the panel's 11 Democratic and 11 Republican senators.Barring a significant misstep by the 51-year-old Jackson, a federal judge for the past nine years, Democrats - who control the Senate by the slimmest of margins - intend to wrap up her confirmation before Easter. She would be the third black justice after Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, as well as the first black woman on the high court."It's not easy being the first. Often, you have to be the best, in some ways the bravest," Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee chairman, said in support shortly after the proceedings began.Democrats sought to pre-emptively rebut Republican criticism of her record on criminal matters as a judge, and before that as a federal public defender and a member of the US Sentencing Commission.Jackson "is not anti-law enforcement", and is not "soft on crime", Senator Pat Leahy said, noting that members of Jackson's family have worked in law enforcement and that she has support from some national law enforcement organisations. "Judge Jackson is no judicial activist."The committee's senior Republican, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, promised Republicans would "ask tough questions about Jackson's judicial philosophy" without turning the hearings into a "spectacle".Senator Lindsey Graham noted that Democrats had opposed some past Republican judicial nominees who were black or Hispanic, and he said that he and his GOP colleagues wouldn't be deterred from asking probing questions by Jackson's race.He said of some criticism from the left: "Bottom line here is, it's about 'We're all racist if we ask hard questions.' That's not going to fly with us."Graham was one of three Republicans to support Jackson's confirmation as an appellate judge last year. But he has indicated over the past several weeks that he is unlikely to vote for her again.Jackson's testimony will give most Americans, as well as the Senate, their most extensive look yet at the Harvard-trained lawyer with a resume that includes two years as a federal public defender. That makes her the first nominee with significant criminal defence experience since Marshall.Jackson appeared before the same committee last year, after President Joe Biden chose her to fill an opening on the federal appeals court in Washington, just down the hill from the Supreme Court.The American Bar Association, which evaluates judicial nominees, has given Jackson its highest rating, "well qualified".Janette McCarthy Wallace, general counsel of the NAACP, said she was excited to see a black woman on the verge of a high court seat."Representation matters," Wallace said. "It's critical to have diverse experience on the bench. It should reflect the rich cultural diversity of this country."While few Republicans are likely to vote for Jackson, most GOP senators did not aggressively criticise her, given that her confirmation would not alter the court's 6-3 conservative majority. Several GOP senators on the panel used their time to denounce Senate Democrats instead of Jackson's record.The Republicans are trying to use her nomination to brand Democrats as soft on crime, an emerging theme in GOP midterm election campaigns. Biden has chosen several former public defenders for life-tenured judicial posts. In addition, Jackson served on the US Sentencing Commission, an independent agency created by Congress to reduce disparity in federal prison sentences.