Trump’s pick to give SC a right tilt
Washington, July 10: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated federal appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, kicking off a brutal confirmation with Democrats who will try to stall the shift of the nation’s highest court further to the right.
Nominating Kavanaugh, 53, as his pick, Mr Trump said the federal judge has “impeccable credentials, unsurpassed qualifications, and a proven commitment to equal justice under the law.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Kavanaugh would help cement a rightward tilt of the Supreme Court, potentially shaping many aspects of US society for decades to come, including women’s access to abortions.
Kavanaugh’s job- for- life appointment will lock down a conservative majority on the court following the departure of Kennedy, who acted as swing vote on a number of key issues, including the legalisation of gay marriage across America.
Opposition figures wasted no time in assailing Kavanaugh, warning his confirmation would usher in the erosion of civil liberties and long- held rights, while conservatives were quick to drum up support for the nominee.
In selecting Kavanaugh, Mr Trump “has put women’s reproductive rights and vital health care protections... At grave, grave risk,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
“Now is the time for the American people to make their voices heard, loudly, clearly, from one end of this country to the other.”
Liberal Senator Bernie Sanders said Kavanaugh would serve as a “rubberstamp for an extreme, right- wing agenda pushed by corporations and billionaires.”
Kavanaugh has the reputation of a staunch conservative, one who many Republicans no doubt hope could help overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that guarantees women the right to an abortion.
Washington, July 10: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Bush loyalist and conservative Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court Jud- ge, a decision that could have far- reaching implications on everything from abortion to guns to immigration and alter the balance of the ideologically divided apex court.
President Trump picked Justice Kavanaugh, a conservative stalwart who has deep ties to the Republican establishment, from an original list of 25 judges, that also included prominent Indian- American judge Amul Thapar.
Justice Kavanaugh’s nomination has set the stage for a bruising confirmation battle as Democrats immediately vowed to oppose the President’s choice of the vacancy created by 81year- old Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement.
Announcing Justice Kavanaugh’s nomination in a prime- time event at the East Room of the White House, Trump described the 53- year- old from Maryland, currently a judge in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as one with “impeccable credentials and one of the finest legal minds of our times”.
The nomination battle will likely ignite a firestorm on Capitol Hill as it comes just a year after Republicans changed the rules of the Senate in order to push through the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch, the first nominee of Trump’s presidency.