Easy decision: Reject Judge Kavanaugh
Senate shouldn’t OK anyone who would abet Trump
President Donald Trump thinks he is above the law, and it just so happens that his pick for the Supreme Court agrees. That’s dangerous for our democracy. The United States Senate should reject Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. Kavanaugh believes a sitting president is entitled to refuse questioning by a prosecutor investigating criminal wrongdoing. He contends that presidents should have “absolute discretion” with regard to the firing of a special counsel. Of course, if we had a president who respected the rule of law, Kavanaugh’s views on this issue might be academic or inconsequential.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s positions on executive privilege are profoundly troubling and should be disqualifying.
But in light of the guilty pleas or convictions of Trump’s campaign chairman, national security adviser, deputy campaign manager and personal lawyer, Kavanaugh’s positions on these key questions of executive privilege are profoundly troubling and should be disqualifying.
Moreover, Kavanaugh’s deference to presidential power is also important for reasons that have nothing to do with the ongoing investigations into Trump and his associates.
Kavanaugh was a top White House lawyer when the Bush administration was seeking legal justifications for the torture of enemy combatants and – contrary to the assurances provided to the Senate in 2006 – he was a key participant in internal White House debates about these actions.
Similarly, Kavanaugh voted with another judge to create a new doctrine of “battlefield preemption” to dismiss claims against private contractors working for the U.S. government who tortured prisoners.
As a combat veteran who served in Iraq, I appreciate the extreme danger and confusion of the battlefield.
Yet I also recognize how critically important it is – both for the safety of our troops and for the security of our nation – for the United States to maintain the moral high ground by upholding our commitment to the just treatment of prisoners.
On this question and others, what little we know of Kavanaugh’s views so far is deeply concerning.
We know he is hostile to workers’ rights and has a long record of supporting big corporations at the expense of their customers, employees. We also know it’s highly unlikely that President Trump would have nominated someone who isn’t firmly committed to eviscerating Roe v. Wade and severely curtailing a woman’s right to choose.
However, his thinking on a range of other key issues remains obscure. That’s because Republicans have aggressively sought to block public disclosure of his prior work and writings, especially from his time at the Bush White House.
During the Obama administration, members of both parties worked together to collect all of the relevant documents pertaining to Elena Kagan’s service under President Clinton.
In contrast, the Senate GOP won’t even ask for most of Kavanaugh’s White House records. They also scheduled his confirmation hearings now despite the fact that the U.S. Archives will need until at least late October to give senators even the limited set of documents that the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee himself requested. Why the rush?
There’s no justification whatsoever for this unseemly race to a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. And it’s telling that this hasty process is being arranged by the very same Senate Republicans who kept a Supreme Court seat vacant for more than a year by refusing to even consider President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland.
Instead of hastening to confirm Kavanaugh, for the sake of the court’s integrity, a wiser course would be to wait until after Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation has concluded.
It’s no coincidence that a president beset by legal troubles picked a nominee who believes the executive is entitled to stymie an independent investigation.
As a legal noose tightens around Trump’s inner circle, the Senate owes it to the American people not to put a man on the Supreme Court who is likely to abet the president’s increasingly desperate efforts to evade accountability for his actions.