REMEMBER REMEMBER THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER | New Documents Don’t Tell Us Anything New | Scalia Still A Hero To All
August 13, 2018
SEPTEMBER SONG
|It’s finally time to mark our calendars for the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee, JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH. The Senate Judiciary Committee said Friday that it has scheduled the hearings to begin on September 4 — less than a month before the start of the high court’s new term.
CLUES IN THE NEWS
|The committee’s announcement came amid the release of new documents from JUDGE KAVANAUGH’S time investigating PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON. AP’s Lisa Mascaro and Mark Sherman report, “The records reveal his resistance to issuing an indictment of a sitting president.”
UPDATED PAGE COUNT
|More documents on Kavanaugh were released Sunday, but Stephanie McCrummen with The Washington Post says there are no obvious bombshells in the newest trove of pages. “Some of the documents released Sunday show Kavanaugh dealing with issues that arose in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, while others show him being invited to conservative think tank events or being asked about minor issues such as parking. The new batch contains thousands of copies of the same documents and lengthy press releases and clips sent to his attention.”
DO THE MATH
|Democrats aren’t happy about the September 4 date — concerned the hearings are coming too soon and without a proper review of the nominee’s paper trail. Li Zhou with Vox notes that SENATOR GRASSLEY wisely chose to address those critiques by pointing out that Kavanaugh’s hearing is taking place 57 days after his nomination was announced, while Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch’s all took place roughly 48 to 49 days after their announcements.
AND THEN A HERO COMES ALONG
|CNN’s Manu Raju and Joan Biskupic report on JUDGE KAVANAUGH’S long history of looking up to the legacy of JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA. In 2016, the now-nominee said of the former justice that he “loved the guy” and that he “was and remains a hero and a role model.”
FALLING IN LINE
|“Hot-button social issues such as abortion and race have so far dominated the debate about Kavanaugh’s nomination, but there is no more important issue to the Trump administration than bringing to heel the federal agencies and regulatory entities that, in Kavanaugh’s words, form ‘a headless fourth branch of the U.S. Government.'” That’s Robert Barnes and Steven Mufson with The Washington Post reporting on the White House’s hope for JUDGE KAVANAUGH to help take down the “administrative state.”