CHOOSING `A JUDGE'S JUDGE'
Trump nominates Kavanaugh to SCOTUS
WASHINGTON — President Trump chose Brett Kavanaugh, a politically connected conservative judge, for the Supreme Court last night, setting up a ferocious confirmation battle with Democrats as he seeks to shift the nation’s highest court further to the right.
A favorite of the Republican legal establishment in Washington, Kavanaugh, 53, is a former law clerk for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Like Trump’s first nominee last year, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Kavanaugh would be a young addition who could help remake the court for decades to come with rulings that could restrict abortion, expand gun rights and roll back key parts of the Affordable Care Act.
“There is no one in America more qualified for this position and no one more deserving,” said Trump, who called Kavanaugh “one of the sharpest legal minds of our time.”
Trump said he’s “a judge’s judge” and cited his “proven commitment to equal justice under the law.”
Kavanaugh, who lectures at Harvard Law and ran the Boston Marathon twice, told the president as he took the microphone to accept his nomination that he was “grateful to you” and “humbled by your confidence in me.”
He also said he is “deeply honored” to be nominated to fill Kennedy’s seat.
Kavanaugh says that if he’s confirmed, he “will keep an open mind in every case” and “always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the American rule of law.”
He also thanked his parents and talked about his young daughters, whose basketball teams he coaches. He says his daughters’ teammates call him “Coach K.”
With Kavanaugh, Trump is replacing a swing vote on the nine-member court with a staunch conservative. Kavanaugh, who serves on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is expected to be less receptive to abortion and gay rights than Kennedy was. He also has taken an expansive view of executive power and has favored limits on investigating the president.
A senior White House official said Trump made his final decision on the nomination Sunday evening, then phoned Kavanaugh to inform him.
The official said Trump decided on Kavanaugh, a front-runner throughout the search process, because of his large body of jurisprudence cited by other courts, describing him as a judge that other judges read.
Trump phoned retiring Justice Kennedy to inform him that his former law clerk would be nominated to fill his seat. Trump signed Kavanaugh’s nomination papers Monday evening in the White House residence.
Top contenders had included federal appeals judges Raymond Kethledge, Amy Coney Barrett and Thomas Hardiman, a native of Waltham.