WHAT’S WRONG WITH WATERGATE | One Sentence That Defines Kavanaugh’s Position on Citizens United | A Lonely Voice In Favor Of Gun Rights
July 23, 2018
PLAY BACK THE TAPE
|Friday, Supreme Court nominee JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH turned in his questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee, plus thousands of pages of documents that paint a clearer picture of the jurist who could possibly earn himself a lifetime appointment to the United States Supreme Court. Among those documents are public comments he made questioning the the correctness of the 1974 SCOTUS decision that forced then-President RICHARD NIXON to turn over secret White House tape recordings that led to his resignation. No doubt these comments are likely to draw some serious questioning from Democrats during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings as they could be important in the investigation ROBERT MUELLER is currently heading.
ONE STEP CLOSER
|The questionnaire is a customary step a SCOTUS nominee must take ahead of his confirmation hearing, and BRETT KAVANAUGH’S 110-page questionnaire turned in Friday brings him one step closer to getting on the bench. He noted in his responses that no member of the administration or others involved in the vetting processed had asked about “any currently pending or specific case, legal issue, or question in a manner that could reasonably be interpreted as seeking any express or implied assurances concerning your position on such case, issue, or question.”
THE HECK IS GOING ON
|Looking for quick answers on what the heck is going on with the current fight over the Supreme Court? Jeremy Peters has your back in The New York Times. He’s giving us a cheat sheet on all things SCOTUS right now, and boy are we so thankful for it.
THE MORE THE MERRIER
|Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick reports that among the thousands of documents BRETT KAVANAUGH provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, “One new tranche includes the transcript of a 2000 CNN interview in which he claimed that while it wouldn’t be easy for a president to pack the court with justices who could be relied upon to advance a political agenda—a president willing to expend considerable ‘capital’ on a ‘bloody’ confirmation could get it done.” Lithwick adds, “The fact that the younger Kavanaugh in 2000 both lamented that presidents usually wouldn’t expend the political capital to weather a bloody confirmation battle and then went on to work to install a president willing to do just that shows how fully prescient the young lawyer would be.”
ED BOARD OVERTURE
|The Editorial Board of The New York Times thinks JUDGE KAVANAUGH will be right at home on the Supreme Court among its pro-corporate justices — JUSTICE ALITO in particular.
IT'S GONNA BE ME
|The vote to confirm JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH to the Supreme Court could come down to just one senator — and SENATOR RAND PAUL would like us to think that senator could be him. He says he is still unsure about whether to throw his vote behind the president’s nominee, concerned about Kavanaugh’s position on privacy and the Fourth Amendment.
FAVORITE PHRASE
|But how can we ever really know what position a judge will take once on the Supreme Court? Adam Liptak with The New York Times tackles this question in part by looking into where JUDGE KAVANAUGH stands on Citizens United. Liptak says the nominee is likely to reaffirm and build on the Citizens United decision due to his love and affection for one very important sentence.
ONE AND ONLY
|The presence of BRETT KAVANAUGH at SCOTUS could also turn the high court against gun control laws. NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports on Kavanaugh’s “lonely voice” that takes on “an unusually strong” position in favor of the Second Amendment.
SCOTUS VIEWS
Democrats Are Entirely Too Focused On Abortion
Los Angeles Times“Voters and Democrats’ constituents have a broader set of constitutional concerns: Voting rights, immigration, workplace protections, environmental law and affirmative action are going to be at the mercy of the justices. Out of all the pressing issues the Supreme Court confronts, why should abortion — an issue that divides the Democratic Party as well as the country — marshal such attention? Does it help the party to make abortion rights such a predominant subject? Does it even help the pro-choice cause?”
Red State Democrats Have No Good Reason To Vote For Brett Kavanaugh
New York Magazine“But while some reports have framed their dilemma as an agonizing, make-or-break choice, the stickiness of their predicament is likely exaggerated. The available evidence — or lack thereof — shows that there is simply no compelling reason for them to give Kavanaugh the green light. Here are five reasons why they shouldn’t bend.”
The Supreme Court's War On Women Is Also A War On Workers
The Washington Post“We are witnessing the willful destruction of the institutions and infrastructure that are key to the health and well-being of women and families and also to that of our economy and our democracy. This is what the war on women — which is also a war on workers — looks like. If Trump and the GOP have their way and seat Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, it will hasten a dramatic landscape shift that will make the United States an increasingly hostile place for women and their children.”