Court nominee making his case
NO TIMELINE FOR VETTING PROCESS OF TRUMP’S SUPREME COURT PICK
President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, mapped out strategy with Republican leaders Tuesday, launching a fierce confirmation battle that could remake the court for decades and roil the midterm elections in the meantime.
Kavanaugh, a favourite of the GOP establishment, first huddled with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Joining him were Vice-President Mike Pence and former Sen. Jon Kyl. He also met for roughly 30 minutes with Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee that is taking the first close look at the nomination.
While Republicans have set a goal of confirming Kavanaugh this fall, Grassley said speed isn’t the goal. The vetting process, he said, is “going to be thorough and going to be done right.” He did not offer a timeline for confirmation hearings.
Republicans have reacted positively to Trump’s pick, but McConnell has little margin of error for the final vote unless a few Democrats can be brought onboard. Republicans hold a slim 51-49 Senate majority, but they hope to gain support for Kavanaugh from a handful of Democrats who are up for re-election in states where Trump is popular.
McConnell called Kavanaugh “one of the most thoughtful jurists” in the country and blasted Democrats as “eager to try and turn judicial confirmations into something like political elections.” The GOP leader warned against engaging in “cheap political fear-mongering.”
“We’ll hear all kinds of fantastic stories about the pain and suffering that this perfectly qualified, widely respected judge will somehow unleash on America if we confirm him to the court,” McConnell said. Pence called Kavanaugh a “good man.” Democrats are uniting behind a strategy to turn the confirmation fight into a referendum on conservatives’ efforts to undo abortion access and chip away at other health care protections under the Affordable Care Act.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York is vowing to fight the nomination “with everything I have.”
Schumer warned, “In selecting Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump did exactly what he said he would do on the campaign trail — nominate someone who will overturn women’s reproductive rights and strike down health care protections for millions of Americans.”
The Democrats have turned their attention to pressuring two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to oppose any nominee who threatens the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. The two have supported access to abortion services.
“We’ve got some due diligence that we’ve got to do,” Murkowski said Tuesday.
Collins said Kavanaugh is “clearly qualified” but other issues also will come into play for her, specifically “judicial temperament” and “judicial philosophy.”
Kavanaugh in the past has made statements about respecting precedent that could help in winning over Murkowski and Collins.
In his 2006 confirmation hearing to become a federal judge, Kavanaugh said, “I would follow Roe v. Wade faithfully and fully” because it’s “binding precedent” that has been “reaffirmed many times.”
Yet there’s little doubt that Kavanaugh, a solidly conservative, politically connected judge, would shift the nation’s highest court further to the right.