Kavanaugh grilled on abortion, presidential power
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s US Supreme Court nominee said Wednesday he would not let political pressure threaten his judicial independence, as he assured senators he respected the landmark legal precedent protecting abortion rights.
Through an at-times tense 12hour session on Day 2 of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, lawmakers grilled him over the administration’s withholding of documents from his time in the Bush White House, gun legislation, the ongoing Russia investigation and whether a sitting president can be compelled to respond to a subpoena.
The 53-year- old conservative jurist was tapped by the president to succeed retired justice Anthony Kennedy – often the swing vote on the country’s highest court – in a lifetime appointment.
Should he win confirmation, Kavanaugh would be Trump’s second nominee on the ninemember bench, and could solidify a hard-right court majority and help shape key aspects of American society for a generation.
Kavanaugh – a deeply controversial figure seen by progressives as a threat to women’s health care rights – was asked about Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that protects abortion rights.
He told the Senate Judiciary Committee he considered it “settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court.”
“I don’t live in a bubble, I live in the real world,” the judge, who sits on the US Court of Appeals in Washington, assured Democrat Dianne Feinstein.
“I understand the importance of the issue.”
Trump campaigned on a promise to nominate pro-life judges and justices, and Democrats worry that Kavanaugh will seek to roll back abortion rights if he wins the backing of a straight majority in the 100-member Senate. — Reuters