EMAILS INDICATE NOMINEE’S VIEWS ON ABORTION | Paging Collins And Murkowski | Brett Still Likely To Become Justice Kavanaugh
September 7, 2018
WE'VE COME TO THE END OF THE ROAD
|In non op-ed related news, late last night JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH finished his marathon testimony after two days of senators grilling him about his records, his positions on abortion and presidential pardons, and his fitness for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. The week has been filled with rowdy, uncomfortable and angry exchanges in that hearing room. NPR’s Nina Totenberg takes a look at Days 3 and 4 — today, when the committee will hear from witnesses testifying for and against the nominee.
RULES OF DODGEBALL
|James Hohmann with The Washington Post calls out the twelve questions JUDGE KAVANAUGH refused to answer during his testimony, plus the non-answers the nominee provided. Questions included whether a sitting president can be indicted, if he would recuse himself from cases involving liability for Trump, whether he will overturn Roe v. Wade, and a handful of other significant considerations from the Senate panel.
PAGING SUSAN COLLINS
|But the one thing BRETT KAVANAUGH did make clear yesterday are his thoughts on reproductive rights when he referred to birth control as “abortion-inducing drugs.” He was responding to questions from SENATOR TED CRUZ who had asked about the nominee’s dissent in a case where Kavanaugh sided with a religious organization which did not want to provide employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives. This of course was revealed after a different email that wasn’t previously provided to the public was leaked yesterday and indicated Judge Kavanaugh doesn’t think legal scholars are in agreement that Roe is settled law.
A NEW MAVERICK
|Much of the spotlight around yesterday’s hearing was fixed on SENATOR CORY BOOKER who has now released five tranches of “confidential” documents to the public in protest of Republicans’ refusal to provide even a majority of the records on Kavanaugh. Among the latest documents leaked was an email in which BRETT KAVANAUGH called Roe v. Wade a “bad law.” (paging LISA MURKOWSKI) Booker says he knows he’s risking being removed from the Senate but has moved forward with the document release anyway to prove the point that the process guiding these hearings is a “sham.”
POTATO POTATO
|But now there’s some controversy over whether the documents Booker released were indeed confidential. Republicans are claiming at least some of the documents released were already cleared for the public. However, Booker stands by his argument: there are documents that have been deemed confidential by Republicans for no reason other than to protect the nominee from an honest inquiry into his past.
HERE'S WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN
|The Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Times reminds us of the reality of BRETT KAVANAUGH’S confirmation to the Supreme Court: it’s a forgone conclusion. They say regardless of how we got here, judicial confirmations have gotten more and more partisan — so it’s no wonder Kavanaugh will get confirmed by a Republican-controlled Senate. LAT: “The question isn’t whether the selection of Supreme Court justices should be rescued from excessive partisanship; it’s how that might be accomplished. Although in the past we have supported abolition of the filibuster, restoring it for Supreme Court nominations might be a way to encourage bipartisan consensus and to prod presidents to nominate broadly acceptable candidates. It’s also worth considering whether Supreme Court justices should be appointed not for life but for lengthy fixed terms, which would lower the political stakes in any individual appointment and discourage justices from hanging on to office in the hopes of being able to retire when a president of the same party is elected.”
HOW FAR WE'VE FALLEN
|Similarly, the Editorial Board of The Washington Post argues that this week of Supreme Court hearings exposes just how far the Senate has fallen. And there was no mincing of words in this piece. “Nothing Democrats or Republicans have done before has more poisoned the Supreme Court confirmation process, perhaps irrevocably, than Republicans’ blocking of MERRICK GARLAND, PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S nominee, and their subsequent effort to rush through Mr. Kavanaugh. It is a shame two distinguished jurists have been caught in a disgusting partisan spectacle.”
HOW TO FIX THE COURT
|Daniel Epps and Ganesh Sitaraman note in Vox their ideas for fixing the Supreme Court and keeping it from becoming just another partisan institution. Their ideas include what they’re calling a Supreme Court panel solution, and a balanced court solution.
ROLL CALL
|Over 200 protesters have been arrested so far over the Kavanaugh hearings. Many were taken from the actual hearing room, others were arrested outside of SENATOR GRASSLEY’S office in the Hart building. To put faces to the desperate cries we heard from the back of the room while the committee hearing dragged on, Buzzfeed shares with us a compilation of some of the most intense moments of these arrests.
HE HAD IT COMIN' HE HAD IT COMIN'
|Even with all the d-r-a-m-a, JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH will likely sail through to being confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. Republicans still have all the power (and votes) they need to win on this one. Even so-called swing votes such as SENATOR COLLINS are waffling on their promises to protect Roe and look ready to vote along party lines. We’ll have more on what happened today with witness testimony, and what will surely happen over the weekend, when SCOTUSDaily returns on Monday.