Brett Kavanaugh (1965- ) is a US judge and Bush Republican. On July 9th 2018 President Trump named him to serve on the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. He could be confirmed by the Senate as early as October.
The Supreme Court left to right. With Kavanaugh replacing Kennedy, Roberts would become the political centre of gravity. Source: FiveThirtyEight.
Sheltered White Man: That he would be the 108th White man on the court (out of 114) is totally not racist. Only wise Latinas can be racist.
If he is confirmed it will be a dream come true for Republicans: at long last they will have enough hard-right judges on the court to overturn Roe v Wade (1973), the decision that allows abortion (killing of the unborn). It is why most of the court is, like Kavanaugh, Catholic.
The Federalist Society recommends him. They too want to overturn Roe v Wade. For the past 30 years they have been pushing originalism, the idea that the Constitution should be read according to the “original intent” of those who wrote it. That is a nice way of saying the US should be by and for rich White straight Christian cis men, a way to turn back the clock to at least 1950. Make America Great Again!
Kavanaugh will also likely provide the fifth vote needed to end affirmative action.
Presidential power: Of more immediate concern to President Trump is the Russiagate scandal, which could easily reach the Supreme Court. These words by Kavanaugh in 2009 are likely what got him the nomination:
“I believe that the President should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office. … the indictment and trial of a sitting President, moreover, would cripple the federal government.”
after all:
“If the president does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available.”
In 1998 he helped write the Ken Starr report, in particular the part that says a president can be impeached for obstruction of justice or lying under oath. But:
From 2001 to 2006 he worked for President Bush and saw how hard it is to be president. He was a staff secretary, handling every piece of paper that reached the president. It gave him a deep understanding of how government agencies work.
From 2006 to 2018 he was a judge on the DC District court, considered the second most powerful court in the land. Many of its cases concern government agencies.
Net neutrality: Kavanaugh is not a fan. He thinks that companies that provide Internet service should be allowed to block or slow down or speed up any website they want – in the name of “free speech”! The free speech of the companies, that is. If you do not like it, you can always change Internet providers, which for most people would mean moving to another city or state. Abortion under Kavanaugh could wind up like that too: you might have to go to another state.
Global warming: Bending over backwards for big business means he undermines the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do anything about global warming.
Kavanaugh would likely be on the court till the 2040s.
– Abagond, 2018.
Update (September 19th): Senate Republicans are trying to ram through Kavanaugh’s confirmation before the midterm elections in November. They refuse to examine his well-documented time at the Bush II White House. He has been found to lie under oath. And now a woman, Christine Blasey Ford, a professor from California, has come forward accusing him of attempted rape back in high school. She is willing to speak in public before the Senate, but only after an FBI investigation. She has received death threats.
Update (September 24th): A second woman has come forward, Deborah Ramirez, who says he put his penis in her face freshman year at Yale (1983-84).
Update (September 28th): On the 26th a third woman came out against Kavanaugh: Julie Swetnick, accusing him of taking part in gang rapes. On the 27th Blasey Ford spoke before the Senate and Kavanaugh defended himself – see my post on the Ford-Kavanaugh hearing.
Update (September 28th, 22:16 GMT): Trump has ordered the FBI to reopen its background check on Kavanaugh!!!
Three Republican Senators are still on the fence (Flake, Murkowski, and Collins). They all want him to reopen the investigation. Trump needs at least two of them to get Kavanaugh through the Senate. Two red-state Democrats (Manchin and Heitkamp) are also on the fence.
The Senate will delay its vote on Kavanaugh for up to a week to allow for the investigation.
The FBI will at least look into the Blasey Ford accusation. It is unclear if they will look into the Ramirez and Swetnick ones.
Update (October 1st): The FBI does seem to be investigating the Blasey Ford and Ramirez accusations, but not (yet?) the Swetnick one, by far the worst of the three.
Update (October 3rd): As far as can be known from news reports, the FBI has only interviewed Ramirez and four of Kavanaugh’s friends who drank beer with him on July 1st 1982: Mark Judge, Timmy, Squi, and one other. That get-together at Timmy’s house, marked on Kavanaugh’s calendar from that year, more or less fits Blasey Ford’s account. The FBI has not yet interviewed Kavanaugh, Blasey Ford, Swetnick, or any of the 20 witnesses provided by Ramirez. They have reportedly been turning away people who have come forward to them. One report says that they have been told (by Trump) to do as little as possible.
Update (October 4th): The FBI completed their investigation yesterday. They spoke to only nine witnesses. It seems that they pretty much just talked to Ramirez and some of Kavanaugh’s friends and then called it a day.
It was not the FBI which wanted to limit the investigation but President Trump.
Despite all that, Flake and Collins, two of the Republican fence-sitters, found the FBI report “very thorough”.
The Senate is set to vote on Kavanaugh on Saturday, two days from now.
Update (October 5th): Flake, Collins, and Manchin have all said they will vote for Kavanaugh. Barring any 11th-hour conversions, that is enough to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. The official vote takes place tomorrow.
Update (October 6th): Brett Kavanaugh is now on the Supreme Court.
It was the narrowest Supreme Court confirmation vote in over a hundred years.
The vote was 50 to 48. All but one Democrat (Manchin) voted against Kavanaugh, all but two Republicans (Murkowski, Daines) voted for him. Murkowski voted neither yes or no but “present”. Daines of Montana was not even present – he was at his daughter’s wedding.
Update (October 10th): Christine Blasey Ford is still in hiding. She is still getting death threats.
See also:
Abagond 