Tuesday, July 9 President Donald J. Trump (R) appointed Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh sits on the DC Circuit Court. That is the main federal appeals court and has often been a stepping stone to the Supreme Court as it hears some of the most prominent cases, including ones filed against federal legislation like Obamacare. Kavanaugh has over 300 rulings which likely will be poured over in coming days.
Kavanaugh, age 53, was appointed by President George W. Bush (R) and has served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals since 2006. Kavanaugh clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom he would be replacing on the nation’s highest court.
The White House says that they expect that Kavanaugh will be confirmed by October 1.
Kavanaugh is Catholic. He is a graduate of Yale and has his law degree from Yale Law School. His parents were both attorneys and his mother was a judge. He met his wife when both of them were working in the George W. Bush White House. They have two daughters. He coaches basketball. Kavanaugh worked for President Bush for five years. Kavanaugh also worked with special prosecutor Ken Starr on the Whitewater investigation.
“There is no one in America more qualified for this position, and no one more deserving,” President Trump said.
The Democratic National Committee said in a statement that Kavanaugh should be allowed nowhere near the Supreme Court. No one seriously expected that the DNC would support any Trump nominee to the Supreme Court during an election year. Leftists had already gathered in the streets to oppose whomever Trump was going to nominate.
“President Trump’s nominee of Brett Kavanaugh for the critical vacancy on the Supreme Court could shape America’s legal landscape for decades,” said Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver. “Judge Kavanaugh has a distinguished legal career and is committed to interpreting the text and original meaning of the Constitution and statutes. Judges must be bound to the text and original meaning of the law. This simple judicial constraint will prevent the Supreme Court and any court from bending the law to support personal ideologies. The Supreme Court needs to remove itself from political decision-making and personal preferences.”
Democrats fear that if the court moves toward a more constructionist philosophical bent then controversial rulings like Roe versus Wade, which created a right to an abortion ignoring the rights of the unborn to life, and Obergefell versus Hodges, which established a right to same sex marriage could be overturned. If that were to happen then those issues would then go back to the state legislatures. If that were to occur Alabama would likely outlaw most abortions and same sex marriage as there is already pro-life and sanctity of marriage laws already on the books in the state; they are just prevented from being enforced by the federal courts under the supremacy clause of the Constitution.
The President reportedly made the decision late Sunday night.
