Dean warns of a court overly deferential to presidential power
WASHINGTON >> John Dean, the former Nixon White House counsel who played a crucial role in the Watergate scandal, testified Friday that confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh as a justice will lead to the “most presidential-powers friendly” Supreme Court in the modern age.
The sharp criticism was laid out in Dean’s remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the last day of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. More than two dozen witnesses testified in favor of and against President Trump’s Supreme Court pick.
Dean argued in his testimony that conservatives have “slowly done a 180-degree turn” on executive power and that a Supreme Court that is overly deferential to the president is “deeply troubling,” with Republicans controlling both the House and Senate.
“Under Judge Kavanaugh’s recommendation, if a president shot someone in cold blood on Fifth Avenue that president could not be prosecuted while in office,” Dean told senators, a reference to Trump’s oft-repeated campaign line that he could act that way and not lose support.
He elaborated on his prepared testimony to the committee, in which he said: “There is much to fear from an unchecked president who is inclined to abuse his powers. That is a fact I can attest to from personal experience.”
Dean was a key witness during the congressional Watergate hearings in 1973, recounting how he told President Richard M. Nixon that there was a “cancer” growing on the presidency. Nixon resigned in 1974.
Dean was charged with obstruction of justice for his role in the Watergate coverup and spent four months in prison.
“I think you and your coconspirators hurt my country,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., told Dean. Though Dean ultimately did the right thing, Kennedy added that “you only did it when you were cornered like a rat, and it’s hard for me to take your testimony seriously.”
Kavanaugh has held an expansive
view of executive powers, and his opinions have been a major focal point for Democrats during his confirmation hearings to replace retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Under questioning, Kavanaugh declined to say whether a president is subject to a subpoena or whether he can pardon himself. The judge also declined to say whether he would recuse himself from cases involving special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election should they reach the Supreme Court.
Democrats assembled a slate of witnesses who argued about the impact that a Justice Kavanaugh would have on voting rights, abortion access and gun control, among other hot-button issues. Republicans have chosen to focus on Kavanaugh’s personal qualifications, calling on witnesses who testified to his legal acumen.
Kavanaugh is on track to winning confirmation by month’s end with strong Republican support in the GOPled Senate.Several witnesses called by Republicans detailed their personal relationships with Kavanaugh and how the judge has been a mentor and teacher, whether in court or in a classroom.
Luke McCloud, a former Kavanaugh
law clerk, noted that 13 of Kavanaugh’s 48 clerks are racial minorities, a percentage he said was “nearly unheard of among his judicial peers.” Another witness — Colleen Roh Sinzdak — clerked for Kavanaugh’s colleague, D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland whose 2016 nomination to the Supreme Court was obstructed by Senate Republicans.
Though she said the judiciary and the country “suffered greatly” because Garland was blocked, Sinzdak stressed that it shouldn’t preclude confirming Kavanaugh, whom she called a “brilliant, fair and kind jurist.”
“Throughout his legal career, I’ve heard nothing but the highest praise for Judge Kavanaugh as a human being,
as a lawyer and as a judge,” said Ted Olson, the former solicitor general under President George W. Bush.
Those tales were a sharp contrast to the picture painted by the witnesses from Democrats, who testified that Kavanaugh would be a critical swing vote against key rights. A handful were children, including Aalayah Eastmond, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who survived the shootings there earlier this year, and Hunter Lachance, a 15-year-old from Kennebunkport, Maine, who has asthma and raised concerns about Kavanaugh’s past environmental rulings.
Jackson Corbin, a 13-yearold from Hanover, Pennsylvania, with a rare genetic condition called Noonan syndrome, also pressed the committee on protecting coverage for people with pre-existing conditions — echoing warnings from Democratic senators that Kavanaugh, if confirmed, could strike down key provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
“I might be a kid, but I am still an American,” Corbin said. “We must have justices on the Supreme Court who will save the Affordable Care Act, safeguard pre-existing conditions and protect our care.”