Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is expected to get confirmed by the Senate as soon as next week once her nomination is advanced out of the Judiciary Committee.

The committee is set to vote on Monday and is widely expected to deadlock, with Democrats voting in favor of Jackson’s nomination and Republicans voting against it. Despite this tie, Democrats have the tools to bring her nomination to the floor and are aiming to do so before lawmakers leave for their upcoming recess on April 8.

If confirmed, Jackson would become the first Black woman to take a seat on the nation’s highest court. With moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) onboard, as well as the support of at least one Republican senator, Jackson is on track to have the simple majority she needs to move forward.

Here’s what comes next.

Where Jackson’s nomination goes from here

Jackson’s nomination heads next to a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee that’s slated to take place on Monday.

The committee vote is likely to end in a tie, since the 11 Democrats in the committee are set to support Jackson, while none of the 11 Republicans are expected to. Although a tie would cause a slight delay, it won’t deter her nomination from advancing.

“A tie vote doesn’t stop us,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said last Wednesday. “It slows us down on the floor for a few hours, but it doesn’t stop us.”

The committee’s response to a potential tie could also indicate how much lawmakers want to preserve Senate norms. Historically, the Judiciary Committee has allowed Supreme Court nominees, including Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas, to go to the floor even if they don’t get the backing of the majority of the committee.

If Republicans refuse to do the same with Jackson, Democrats have the ability to vote to release her nomination. That would requiring bringing what’s known as a “discharge petition” to the floor, holding four hours of debate and having the entire Senate vote on it. With 51 votes, that petition would be able to pass.

Going that route, though, would indicate that the days of honoring past practices regarding Supreme Court nominees are likely over.

Democrats hope to hold a floor vote on Jackson shortly after the committee meeting, with the goal of getting her confirmed before the Senate leaves for its Easter recess.

Because Supreme Court nominees only need a simple majority (or 51 votes) to get confirmed, Democrats’ 50-member caucus will be able to advance Jackson on their own, with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.

Between now and then, however, Democrats are continuing to court Republican Senators in an attempt to make the vote on Jackson’s nomination a more bipartisan one.

Republicans have limited ways to stop the nomination

There are limited tools Republicans have in order to block the nomination from moving forward.

One idea that several Republicans have already rejected is a boycott of the Judiciary Committee vote. Per committee rules, two members of the minority party need to be present to establish the quorum needed for a vote to take place. If no minority members are present, the vote theoretically can’t move forward. Additionally, a majority of the committee needs to be present to report a nomination to the Senate floor.

Were Republicans to boycott, the committee would not have the majority it needs to send the nomination to the floor.

In the end, however, Democrats have a way to overcome such maneuvers. In the case of a boycott, Democrats could still advance Jackson’s nomination, though it would likely be contested on the Senate floor as a rules violation. At that point, the Senate could hold a majority vote effectively overriding these rules.

There’s also precedent to ignore the quorum rule. In 2020, then-Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham advanced Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination even though Democrats boycotted the committee vote. At the time, however, Republicans had the necessary majority in the Committee to get the nomination to the floor.

Thus far, multiple Republicans have indicated they’re unlikely to pursue a boycott.

“I haven’t had any conversation [on a boycott] with any Republican,” Senate Judiciary ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told Punchbowl Wednesday. “If there’s any thought of that, people would be talking to me. So there’s no thought of that.”

Republicans have also made demands for more documents to vet Jackson’s nomination, including the pre-sentencing reports in child porn cases that Jackson oversaw. Throughout the hearings, Republicans have argued that Jackson was too lenient in child porn cases, an argument that’s been widely debunked.

On Wednesday, Republicans on the committee pushed for Democrats to release the confidential pre-sentence reports in these cases. These include sensitive information about the victims as well as notes from an offender’s probationary officer. Democrats have already rejected this request, and said that they’ve provided Republicans with sufficient information about these cases.

“The notion of making those pre-sentencing reports available for this political environment, and potentially available for public consumption, would be reprehensible and dangerous,” Durbin said during Wednesday’s press conference.

George Washington University professor Sarah Binder, an expert on congressional procedure, notes that there are few avenues for Republicans to actually slow or block the nomination, including the push for documents.

“In a 50-50 senate, the majority can stick together and manage the process to the majority’s interests,” she told Vox.

Democrats are hoping it will be a bipartisan vote

Democrats are hoping they can sway more Republicans to support her nomination, even though they don’t need to.

Previously, three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — voted to support Jackson’s nomination to the DC Circuit Court. Collins has already said she plans to do so again, while Graham announced that he would not.

“My decision is based upon her record of judicial activism, flawed sentencing methodology regarding child pornography cases and a belief Judge Jackson will not be deterred by the plain meaning of the law when it comes to a liberal cause,” Graham said in a Thursday floor speech. Murkowski has yet to announce her decision so far.

Other Republicans that Democrats are trying to win over include more moderate members like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and retiring members such as Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Pat Toomey (R-PA).

Given the limited Republican support Jackson received last year, however, it’s unlikely she’ll get more than a handful of GOP votes this time around.