Everything You Need to Know About Brett Kavanaugh
September 17, 2018
On June 9, 2018, President Donald Trump made his second Supreme Court pick in his 4 year term. President Trump’s first pick was Neil Gorsuch, currently one of the 8 Supreme Court Justices. President Trump’s most recent pick was Brett Kavanaugh. Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring so another Justice position is open.
Kavanaugh is a graduate from Yale Law School and has been a judge since then. He was on the United States Court of Appeals third circuit from 1990-2006; the third circuit only covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands. Then after that he was on the United States Court of Appeals from 2006-2018. The United States Court of appeals covers all of the United States. Kavanaugh was also President George W. Bush’s White House Staff Secretary from 2003-2006. These are some of the reasons why President Trump choose Brett Kavanaugh.
One of the major setbacks many Democratic Senators have with Judge Kavanaugh are his beliefs. Judge Kavanaugh is a registered Republican. He is against abortions, which worries Democratic Senators about the Roe v. Wade case.Roe vs. Wade, which was decided on in 1973, is what legalized abortions.
Another big talking point for the Democratic senators is his stance of Executive Branch power. Kavanaugh does not believe that the President can be distracted with an investigation while in office. This is a talking point because President Trump is currently under an investigation about Russian collusion.
Other beliefs of Judge Kavanaugh are that he is Pro – Second amendment and he believes that Obama era net neutrality was unlawful and violates the first amendment. During Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing which, happened from September 4th to September 7th, many of these points were brought up.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh expressed, “ A good judge must be an umpire – a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy.”
There are many stories that came out during the confirmation hearings about Brett Kavanaugh. For example, on the first day Judge Kavanaugh was confronted by a dad of one of the kids who had died from the Parkland Shooting. He approached Judge Kavanaugh and tried to shake his hand; however, Security had pulled Kavanaugh away from the man. 70 people were arrested for protesting the hearings. Another major talking point was the emails that Senator Booker had released. The Democrats believed it to be racial profiling and the Republicans didn’t see anything wrong with the emails. Senator Booker put a link to the emails on his twitter page.
After questioned on the Supreme Court Judge Kavanaugh responded, “It must never be viewed as a partisan institution.”
Overall the Senate is pretty split. Most Republicans are voting yes and most Democrats are voting no. However, what makes this decision so special is that lots of senators are up for reelection, many people are going to vote on their senator based on how they vote for Judge Kavanaugh.This is part of the reason why senators are voting the way they are. It is believed that based on the senators who have already said what they are voting, that Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed. Although, he may not, the next Supreme court session starts October 2nd, the other justices on the Supreme Court would like to have the next Justice there for the start.
Brett Kavanaugh is an active Catholic with a wife and two children. He lives just outside of Washington D.C and has been a high ranked judge since 1990.
https://www.vox.com/2018/9/12/17769702/kavanaugh-supreme-court-republican-voters-midterms
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/11/politics/brett-kavanaugh-changing-america-supreme-court/index.html
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