Protests at SC judge confirmation in US
The US Senate confirmation hearing of judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, got off to a noisy start on Tuesday with Democrats unsuccessfully trying to stall it and protestors outshouting senators.
Some 30 people were arrested for disrupting the hearing, and were removed one by one while shouting and yelling. They urged senators to delay the hearing, with one of them yelling, “We demand you vote no.”
Democrats on the committee sought an adjournment of the hearing, citing late delivery of documents regarding the nominee and tried to stall the proceedings by citing rules. They do not have the numbers to stop the confirmation, which is a near certainty at this stage, unless something drastic happens that would turn Republicans against their president’s nominee.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation could tilt the balance on the ninemember Supreme Court bench in favour of conservatives as Justice Anthony Kennedy, who he is replacing, was a swing vote though a conservative himself. It’s feared Kavanaugh could change the country’s position on abortion, and other contentious issues.
“Senators, on behalf of the millions of women across the country whose rights will be stripped by a Kavanaugh court, I demand you reject this nomination,” said a member of a women’s rights group at the hearing before she was removed from the room.
In his opening remarks, according to excerpts released by the White House, Kavanaugh pitched himself as a “neutral and impartial arbiter”.