Complaints against Kavanaugh referred to Colo. Circuit Court

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts is referring complaints against new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to federal judges in Colorado and neighboring states.

The complaints deal with statements Kavanaugh made during his confirmation hearings. They were filed originally with Kavanaugh’s old court, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Roberts said in a letter posted Wednesday on the D.C. Circuit website that he has asked judges who handle ethics complaints for the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to deal with the complaints.

In a statement issued Saturday, D.C. Circuit Judge Karen Henderson said the complaints only “seek investigations of the public statements he has made as a nominee to the Supreme Court.”

Roberts took no action while the nomination was pending.

The ACLU lawyer argued she was not arguing that the detained immigrants had a right to go free. She said they should have hearing for a judge to decide whether they were dangerous or likely to flee.

“The problem is Congress did not trust those hearings,” Kavanaugh said. “For a certain class of criminal or terrorist aliens, (Congress) said, ‘No more.’ ”

The justices sounded closely split along ideological lines during the argument in Nielsen v. Preap. However, Justice Neil Gor- such questioned whether federal agents can arrest immigrants decades after they have been released. “Could be it 30 years? Is there any limit on the government’s power,” he asked an administration lawyer.

Last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the mandatory detention rule does not apply to immigrants who were not taken into federal custody “promptly” after their release. The decision did not shield noncitizens with past crimes from being arrested or deported, but it said they