WASHINGTON (AP) — In the court of public opinion — like the Supreme Court nomination hearings coming this week — politicians ask questions of witnesses to score points for their side. In the court of law, judges ask questions to get answers.

That difference will be on display as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson fields loaded questions from Republicans and Democrats, the former mostly opposing her nomination, the latter favoring it.

But the distinction between political and judicial inquiry has already been lost as Republicans in the days before her hearings selectively cited her record to try to ma...