BRETT KAVANAUGH

Kavanaugh, 53, is a Court of Appeals judge for the DC Circuit. He attended the same private DC-area high school as Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and clerked for retiring justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh had high-profile roles in the investigations of President Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky and the death of Clinton aide Vince Foster. He was a member of George W. Bush’s legal team during the 2000 Florida recount. He was confirmed in 2006 by a Senate vote of 57-36, with just four Democrats voting in his favor. SECOND AMENDMENT: Kavanaugh dissented in a followup to the landmark DC v. Heller decision by saying he believed that the District of Columbia’s ban on the possession of most semiautomatic rifles was unconstitutional.

ABORTION: While Kavanaugh dissented on a recent ruling granting an immigrant teen access to an abortion, some conservatives were concerned that he didn’t join a colleague’s opinion that expressly denied the constitutional right to an abortion. OBAMACARE: He dissented on a ruling because he believed it was premature for the federal courts to rule on the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, although he suggested he thought the mandate could be considered a tax. In another case, Kavanaugh ruled that the health-care law’s contraceptive mandate violated the constitutional right to religious liberty.

CYBERSECURITY: Kavanaugh has supported the government’s warrantless surveillance efforts, suggesting national security outweighs privacy concerns. He has also said that the government requesting records from a phone company does not count as a search of a customer. Kavanaugh has sided with conservatives on the issue of ’Net neutrality. DEATH PENALTY: He hasn’t been involved in any major death-penalty cases.