Kavanaugh is Trump’s pick for Supreme Court
KAVANAUGH HAS BEEN A LEADING DEFENDER OF THE GOVERNMENT
The nominated federal judge has endorsed robust views of the powers of president |
Brett Kavanaugh, the federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump on Monday to the Supreme Court, has endorsed robust views of the powers of the president, consistently siding with arguments in favour of broad executive authority during his 12 years on the bench in Washington.
He has called for restructuring the government’s consumer watchdog agency so the president could remove the director, and has been a leading defender of the government’s position when it comes to using military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects.
Kavanaugh is “an unrelenting, unapologetic defender of presidential power” who believes courts can and should actively seek to rein in “large swaths of the current administrative state,” said University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck, who closely follows the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Kavanaugh’s record suggests that if he is confirmed, he would be more to the right than the man he would replace, Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom he clerked. Kavanaugh has staked out conservative positions in cases involving gun rights, abortion and the separation of powers.
Criticism over language
Still, in the run-up to his nomination on Monday, Kavanaugh fielded criticism from some social conservatives who objected to language he used in connection with the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, and to his opinion in a case involving an immigrant teen seeking an abortion. Some of Trump’s core backers also expressed concerns about his ties to the Bush family and GOP establishment.
Washington lawyer Helgi Walker, who worked with Kavanaugh in the White House Counsel’s Office during the George W. Bush administration, said Monday that her former colleague would be “a fair and open-minded justice who values individual liberty and freedom.”
“All Americans should be pleased with this fabulous choice,” said Walker, who attended the reception at the White House. “He will respect the Constitution and follow the law wherever it goes instead of making it up himself as he goes along.”
Kavanaugh, 53, was born in Washington and was a standout student and athlete. He attended Georgetown Preparatory School, the same Jesuit high school in Maryland as Trump’s first Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, another former Kennedy clerk.
His mother, Martha, a publicschool
Brett is a brilliant jurist who has faithfully applied the Constitution and laws throughout his 12 years on the D.C. Circuit... a man of the highest integrity.”
George W. Bush. | Former President
President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will be a rubberstamp for an extreme, rightwing agenda pushed by corporations and billionaires.”
Bernie Sanders | Senator
teacher in Washington, D.C., and his father, Edward, both graduated from law school in 1978 when Kavanaugh was a teenager.
His mother went on to become a prosecutor and Montgomery County (Maryland) Circuit Court judge, and his father led a trade association.
Clinton-linked investigation
After graduating from Yale Law School, Kavanaugh spent his early career steeped in Republican politics and partisan warfare in the nation’s capital. As a young lawyer for independent counsel Kenneth Starr, he investigated the death of President Bill Clinton’s deputy counsel, Vincent Foster.