Democrats may slow Kavanaugh nomination
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans want to fast-track the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but those hopes could be dashed by Democrats demanding to review documents from his past as White House staff secretary and deputy to special counsel Ken Starr.
A decision on when a confirmation hearing will be held could be announced as early as this week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., has praised Kavanaugh as a nominee with impeccable credentials who should be easily confirmed by the Senate to fill the vacancy left by retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Mcconnell wants a vote on the nomination by the full Senate this fall, before the Supreme Court begins its session in October.
Senators are reviewing rulings by Kavanaugh, who served as a judge on the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for the past 13 years.
But Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer,
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D-N.Y., wants his caucus to review Kavanaugh’s entire record, including decisions and recommendations he made as White House staff secretary under President George W. Bush involving controversial surveillance programs after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Democrats also want to scour Kavanaugh’s record as deputy to Starr, and specifically the paperwork Kavanaugh wrote supporting a report seized by House Republicans to impeach President Bill Clinton.
Republicans accuse Democrats of trying to delay the nomination by seeking millions of pages of documents.
“Their demands for an unprecedented paper chase sound more and more like a demand for a taxpayer-funded fishing expedition,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will hold the confirmation hearing.
Schumer said the request by Democrats is nothing different from that of Republicans who reviewed Justice Elena Kagan’s emails and other materials after she was nominated for candidates vetted by the anti-abortion-rights Federalist Society.
Kavanaugh has not met with Schumer or Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-calif., the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, or other Democratic lawmakers.
A spokesman for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-nev., said the senator has sought a meeting with Kavanaugh, but nothing has been scheduled.
Cortez Masto said the next Supreme Court justice will have an impact on issues that include abortion rights, health care protections, LGBTQ rights, workers’ rights and money in politics.
She said she planned to meet Kavanaugh “and will review his qualifications thoroughly.”
Focus on seven lawmakers
A Judiciary aide said Grassley is still considering requests and meticulously reviewing a list of steps that must be taken before a hearing is announced or held.
Grassley has staff members reviewing records from Kavanaugh’s past, before his appointment to the appellate court, to determine which documents would be relevant to his confirmation hearing.