President Donald Trump is being heralded for his nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, the United States Justice Foundation, a nonprofit public interest, legal action organization, praised President Trump for Kavanaugh’s nomination, saying that he had delivered on his campaign promise to nominate well-qualified conservative judges that would faithfully follow the Constitution.
“Judge Kavanaugh is an outstanding choice with impeccable credentials,” said James Lacy, a former Reagan Administration General Counsel and a spokesperson for US Justice Foundation. “Judge Kavanaugh’s exceptional record makes clear: he follows the law and does not legislate from the bench.”
An All-American jurist, Kavanaugh currently serves on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where he has established himself as an effective and respected “judge’s judge”. Judge Kavanaugh is also considered mainstream by the legal community – with more than 210 judges citing just 100 of his insightful opinions.
“From the start of his career, he’s applied the Constitution faithfully, even when that made him a lonely voice,” author J.D. Vance wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “He has done so with particular tenacity on the issue that matters most to the president: taking power away from unelected bureaucrats and returning it to elected officials.”
Judge Kavanaugh: Well-Qualified, Respected by Both Sides of Aisle
Judge Kavanaugh’s strongest support will likely come from the legal community, which has praised him for his work to advance diversity and mentor young lawyers.
“Judge Kavanaugh is the #1 feeder judge of clerks to the Supreme Court. He sends clerks to almost all the justices, on both sides of the aisle — ‘a sign of the deep respect that his possible future colleagues have for him,’” David Lat, founding editor of Above the Law, wrote prior to his nomination.
When President George W. Bush nominated Kavanaugh for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Kavanaugh was initially rated “well qualified” by the American Bar Association. The organization eventually bowed to pressure from liberal special interest groups and downgraded Kavanaugh to “qualified.”
Chairman Steven Tober, then-chairman of the 14-member American Bar Association committee, affirmed that Kavanaugh was “indeed qualified to serve on the federal bench.” “This nominee enjoys a solid reputation for integrity, intellectual capacity and writing and analytical ability,” he wrote. “The concern has been and remains focused on the breadth of his professional experience.”
After graduating with honors from Yale College in 1987, Judge Kavanaugh graduated from Yale Law School in 1990, where he was a Notes Editor on the Yale Law Journal. He clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski, and Third Circuit Judge Walter Stapleton.
“Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s new nominee for the Supreme Court, is a whip-smart legal conservative,” National Review editorialized in support of President Trump’s selection. “As a judge in the highest-profile appeals court in the nation, he has shown an exemplary dedication to the rule of law.”
Precedent: Ginsburg Confirmed in 57 Days
Historically, the United States Senate has acted swiftly to confirm nominees of Kavanaugh’s caliber and qualifications. In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Bill Clinton’s liberal choice to replace Justice Byron White, was confirmed in just 57 days and by a bipartisan 96-3 vote.
Democrats are unlikely to extend the same courtesy to Kavanaugh. According to a recent US Justice Foundation report, Democrats are politicizing the independent judiciary with excessive delays of a diverse cohort of judicial appointments.
“After a historic first year of reforming the judiciary, President Donald J. Trump’s supremely-qualified judicial nominees are now stuck in the swamp,” the USJF concluded in its June 2018 report, “America Needs Great Judges”. “Swamp politics are harming the American people by delaying the swift and independent administration of justice.”
Advice and Consent: Resistance Opposed Before Kavanaugh Finished Speaking
Under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, the President “shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law.”
Yet, members of the anti-Trump Resistance are unlikely to faithfully uphold their constitutional obligations. It took California’s far left U.S. Senator Kamala Harris less than 20 minutes to announce her opposition to Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
“Trump’s Supreme Court Justice nominee, Judge Kavanaugh, represents a direct and fundamental threat to the rights and health care of hundreds of millions of Americans,” Harris tweeted minutes after Kavanaugh’s nomination. “I will oppose his nomination to the Supreme Court. #SCOTUSpick.”
An attack website, Stopkavanaugh.com, was registered anonymously on June 28 and had moved into full attack mode before Kavanaugh could even finish speaking at his nomination announcement. The website is funded by the far-left extremist special interest group, Demand Justice.
Other members of the left wing resistance expressed hope that Kavanaugh’s nomination could be derailed.
“The fluke of good fortune would be for Kavanaugh to turn out, over the course of hearings, to be such a fiasco of a choice that even Republicans would defect,” T.A. Frank, a Vanity Fair contributor, wrote. “Maybe Kavanaugh turns out to be in a cult that requires, say, punching horses in the face, and claims and counterclaims run for months.”
