Local lawyers don’t see problems for Kavanaugh confirmation
♦ Guldenschuh sees Roberts as potential swing vote
Conservative Rome lawyers Joel Thornton and David Guldenschuh believe that Judge Brett Kavanaugh won’t have any trouble getting a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court but also said his confirmation would not necessarily shift the balance of the court to a distinctly conservative bent.
Thornton told the Rome TEA Party he had some dealings with Kavanaugh 20 years ago while working with Jay Sekulow and the American Center for Law and Justice and retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy always considered Kavanaugh to be one of his favorite clerks.
“He is a strict constructionist,” Thornton said. “He does believe in original intent, and that you should look at the words of the statute and the words of the Constitution to determine your ruling.”
Thornton said he has been frustrated by a liberal judiciary which for years has, “spent too much time creating laws or fixing bad laws in their opinion. I don’t think Kavanaugh will be guilty of that.”
He said that Justice Kennedy, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, started out somewhat right of center but drifted to the left from time to time.
Guldenschuh said he was not sure how much of a difference Kavanaugh’s appointment will make.
He said Kavanaugh will stay true to his conservative roots along with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and the newly appointed Neil Gorsuch. Guldenschuh suggested that Chief Justice John Roberts would be the swing judge on the court going forward.
Guldenschuh said Justice Roberts made it very clear in the Affordable Care Act decision that he, “was interested in taking the court away from being viewed as a partisan court.”
Questioned about the impact of seemingly pro-Putin remarks made by President Donald Trump after their summit in Helsinki Monday, both lawyers agreed that they would not have a likely impact on the Kavanaugh confirmation.
Thornton said it won’t impact Trump’s base of support and moderates still have to face election in the fall, so they aren’t likely to buck the nomination.
Guldenschuh, who called himself a “vote-counter” singled out Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a state that went heavily for Trump, faces re-election this fall, as well as Sen. Joe Donnelly of Illinois, another Democrat facing a tough re-election battle — though Illinois did go for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election — could be convinced to support the Kavanaugh nomination.
Thornton said he believes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg would do everything she could to stay on the court while Guldenschuh said he has heard some talk that Justice Clarence Thomas might step down at the end of the Trump term — whenever that is — in order to guarantee another appointment to the court.