Former clerk for retiring Justice Kennedy tapped for role
Brett Kavanaugh, who clerked for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, is President Trump’s pick to replace Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh, 53, is a Yaleeducated appellate court judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit and is probably best known for his ties to former President George W. Bush.
Kavanaugh also was a key member of independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s team that produced the report that served as the basis for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
But he’s attracting the most attention for his view that presidents shouldn’t be bothered with legal inquiries. In a 2009 article in The Minnesota Law Review, Kavanaugh wrote that presidents are under such extraordinary pressure they “should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office.”
Congress, he wrote, should pass a law that would temporarily protect the president from both civil suits and criminal prosecution. Clinton, for example, “could have focused on Osama bin Laden without being distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and its criminal investigation offshoots,” Kavanaugh wrote.
“If the President does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available,” Kavanaugh wrote.
That kind of thinking could prove helpful to Trump, who has been dogged by accusations of sexual harassment, as well as possible obstruction of justice in the Russia probe now being led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
But Kavanaugh’s ties to Washington (he was born in D.C.) and the GOP establishment could hurt his chances too, as Trump’s populist supporters clamor for an outsider and Democrats pan him as a political operative. (When he was confirmed to the federal appeals court in D.C. in 2006, Bush took the unusual step of hosting a Rose Garden swearing-in ceremony with 120 guests to celebrate.)
His judicial biography includes his times in two Boston Marathons, his coaching experience for his two daughters’ basketball teams and his regular participation in services at a Catholic church in Washington.