Collins remains mum on Kavanaugh confirmation
Pressure on GOP senator to reject Supreme Court nominee intense
PORTLAND, Maine – The end of contentious confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has shifted the focus back to potential swing votes like Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
If Collins votes yes, then he is likely confirmed. She and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska probably would both have to vote “no” for Kavanaugh to be blocked.
In keeping with her deliberative approach, Collins has kept mum about how she’ll vote. Still, she’s sent signals that Kavanaugh cleared a hurdle by telling her that Roe v. Wade establishing abortion rights is settled law. A spokeswoman for Collins said a recently released email from Kavanaugh – in which he disputed that legal scholars generally see Roe as settled – didn’t change the senator’s mind about what he told her.
The pressure is intense. Democrats argue that one reason President Donald Trump picked Kavanaugh is because he will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Liberal groups are running TV ads encouraging the senator to reject the nomination.
People from across the country have mailed about 3,000 coat hangers to her office, symbolizing back-alley abortions that took place before they became legal.
And activists have pledged to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund an opponent to Collins if she votes in favor of the president’s nomination. She is up for re-election in 2020.
Collins, who voted against the GOP effort to junk the Affordable Care Act, is used to being in the hot seat.
“I always wait until after the hearings are complete before making a decision, and I’ll do so in this case as well,” she said.
It’s a similar story in Alaska. Murkowski, who also supports abortion rights, is reviewing Kavanaugh and won’t announce her vote before his nomination goes to the Senate floor. “Basically, she’s still vetting the new information that’s coming out,” said her spokeswoman, Hannah Ray.
Collins is following the same process she used with GOP nominees John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, and Democratic nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
“I have voted for Justice Sotomayor, and I’ve also voted for Justice Alito,” she said, referring to justices at the opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. “I respect the fact that one of my jobs is to determine whether or not the candidate is qualified for the court, has the requisite experience, and has the judicial temperament, as well as respect for precedents.”
While she’s never voted against a Supreme Court nominee, Collins has vowed to reject a candidate who’s hostile to the Roe v. Wade ruling. She said Kavanaugh told her during their faceto-face meeting that he views the 1973 decision as established legal precedent.
But Kavanaugh said in a 2003 email while working for President George W. Bush that the Supreme Court “can always overrule its precedent” and noted that three justices at that time would have voted to strike down Roe v. Wade.
Collins insists she’s still deciding. She said she was surprised when many groups reacted reflexively against Kavanaugh’s nomination, without due consideration.
“I was shocked when many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle took a position on the nominee before his identity was even known,” she said.