Democrats are not surrendering without a fight. The ongoing nomination efforts from Republicans to elect Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States has left Democrats pulling out every last stop to try and postpone the vote.
Although it is likely that Kavanaugh gets elected, Democrats are holding off, and saying “not so fast.”
Before getting into the hearing itself it’s important to know more about Kavanaugh, especially his personal history and experience. He was born in Washington, D.C where he attended Georgetown Prep, and later went on to earn his bachelor’s and J.D. degree from Yale. He was a law clerk under various judges, and after a variety of positions, landed a job in 2006 as a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C Circuit, where he still remains an active judge. He also worked as an assistant to former President George W. Bush, which has recently become more and more important.
Although Kavanaugh has so far managed to dodge answering questions of his stance on bipartisan subjects, including abortion, gun restrictions, climate change, and regulation, etc. Charlie Savage of the New York Times writes, “Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, has spent the past dozen years embracing the philosophy of the conservative legal movement as he assembled a record on the powerful federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.”
Despite his valiant efforts to avoid taking a stance on some extremely controversial topics, Kavanaugh’s past decisions in court hearings, give us some insight of his viewpoints.
In a case last fall the appeals court voted to allow an undocumented pregnant 17-year-old in immigration detention to seek an abortion without delay. Judge Kavanaugh dissented, writing that the appeals court was very much bound to obey Supreme Court rulings that state that the Constitution protects a woman’s right to choose an abortion, those precedents left room for the government to apply “reasonable regulations that do not impose an undue burden.”
Additionally, Democrats pressed to learn more about Kavanaugh’s views on executive power during his hearings. In a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article, Kavanaugh wrote that “Congress might consider a law exempting a President – while in office – from criminal prosecution and investigation, including from questioning by criminal prosecutors or defense counsel.” In the same article, however, he noted, “If the President does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available.”
Recently, some drama has been mixed into the SCOTUS nomination involving the FBI. “I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said in a statement to CNN. “That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision,” she said.
Democrats have supported this finding and many have shown their support, saying Kavanaugh needs to be investigated, and the FBI is the appropriate place for this information to be handled. On the other side of the aisle, Republicans are calling this another strategy to delay the vote to confirm Kavanaugh. White House spokesperson Kerri Kupec said Kavanaugh has been “thoroughly and repeatedly vetted” by the FBI for government positions over the past 25 years and accused Democrats of trying to delay the nomination.
Several politicians have continued to comment via social media on the nomination:
https://twitter.com/EllisonCampaign/status/1037122860823785473
https://twitter.com/VP/status/1037024066136408064