Judge Kavanaugh will undoubtedly be interrogated about his views on overturning Supreme Court decisions (the law of precedent or stare decisis, as it’s called in Latin) during his confirmation hearings next week, but there is ironically little that Kavanaugh has written on the subject. Unlike other judges who have been academics and written on precedent, […]
Jane Roe, Overturned
Last week The Kavanaugh Column paused to consider the numerous criticisms of Roe v. Wade penned by federal appeals court judges. There are 167 authorized federal circuit court judgeships, excluding the federal circuit, which does not hear abortion cases. These appellate judges act as the penultimate judicial authority in America, just one step short of the U.S. Supreme Court, […]
Filling in the Senate Scorecard on the Nomination
This week’s big story on Capitol Hill was Senator Susan Collins’s (R-ME) statement that Judge Brett Kavanaugh had told her in their meeting that Roe v. Wade was “settled law.” Counterintuitively, many see this statement as a signal that Collins has concluded that she can’t vote against Kavanaugh and must put things in the best light possible. Things are […]
Unsettled Law: Federal Judges Grapple with Roe v. Wade’s Meaning and Validity
Yesterday, the Kavanaugh Column reflected on a growing trend in the federal judiciary – open criticism, and even hostility to, Roe v. Wade. This criticism, of course, began at the top down, with several Justices of the Supreme Court complaining of the “post hoc nullification machine that is our abortion jurisprudence.” Justice Clarence Thomas has called […]
Is Roe “Settled Law?”
Pro-abortion Senator Susan Collins of Maine reportedly came out of a meeting with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh yesterday and told the media that Kavanaugh had assured her that Roe v. Wade was “settled law.” In yet another example of what passes for political discourse in the Bizarro World of Washington these days, pro-abortion forces rushed to the mikes […]
A Return to “Borking”?
After President Ronald Reagan, in the summer of 1986, nominated Justice William Rehnquist to be Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and nominated Judge Antonin Scalia as Associate Justice, Rehnquist was confirmed by the Senate 65-33 and Scalia was confirmed 98-0. Then, Democrats took over the Senate in the mid-term elections of November 1986. […]
“How Low Can You Go?” Is the Opposition Preparing Tactics to Keep Brett Kavanaugh’s Nomination in Limbo?
The news that leading media sources are seeking to troll through the work emails of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s wife, Ashley, looking for emails containing hot-button words like “abortion,” “gay,” or “gun,” has many wondering if some kind of “October surprise” awaits Kavanaugh when his hearing begins after Labor Day. The relative quiet that prevails is […]
All Quiet on the Western Front
After the initial hubbub over the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, things have quieted down this week. Opposing forces are dug in and waiting for the real offensive to start on September 4th, when the nomination hearing begins before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kavanaugh met with Democratic Senators Heidi Heitkamp […]
What is a “Constitutional Textualist”?
What does it mean when supporters of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh call him a “constitutional textualist,” as, for example, Michael Gerson did recently in the op-ed pages of the Washington Post? As a political rallying cry, its meaning is surely rather opaque to the average layperson. Is calling a Supreme Court nominee a “constitutional textualist” […]
What Do the Polls Know?
Does the public like Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s nominee to the Supreme Court? And does it matter all that much? A lot has been said about Brett Kavanaugh, the person: the fair-minded mentor to young attorneys, the devoted parish volunteer, the willing (and by all accounts, able) coach of his daughters’ basketball teams. What’s […]
Game On: Senate Leadership Sets Kavanaugh Nomination Hearings for September 4th
Last Friday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) announcedthat the hearing to consider the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court will begin on September 4, 2018. Perhaps reflecting the fact that this hearing involves, according to Senator Grassley, the “largest cumulative production of Executive Branch material ever received in the course […]
What is Judge Kavanaugh’s View of Judicial Precedent?
Judge Kavanaugh will almost certainly be grilled at his confirmation hearing about his view of precedent (stare decisis in the Latin phrase that lawyers often use). Opponents will see this as having direct implications for Roe v. Wade and abortion, and for many other constitutional issues as well. Opponents won’t find much in Kavanaugh’s twelve years on the […]
Weekly Wrap Up
On Day 33 of the Kavanaugh confirmation process, the battle, at this stage, continues to be a struggle over whether opponents can find some “dirt,” in millions of page of government records, on Judge Kavanaugh that will stick politically, and whether they can delay the confirmation hearings and vote, as we’ve detailed during the past […]
Kavanaugh’s AEI speech: What, if anything, does it tell us about his views on Roe v. Wade and precedent?
Opponents of Judge Kavanaugh are scouring everything that he has said or written to negatively characterize his views on many legal and constitutional issues, especially abortion and Roe v. Wade. As a July 12 vox.com article emphasized, Roe v. Wade “is at the center of the fight to block the recently named conservative Supreme Court […]
Senator Grassley Doubles Down on Documents
Last Thursday’s column noted and quoted Republican Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (IA)’s letter to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), rebuffing Schumer’s request for over a million pages of documents relating to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s tenure as Staff Secretary to President George W. Bush. Yesterday, Senator Grassley doubled down on his refusal, taking his […]
The Recipe for Chicken a la King
Justice Stephen Breyer famously quipped that the Supreme Court confirmation process is like the recipe for chicken a la king – “from the point of view of the chicken.” Let’s go with the metaphor a little and point out that the main stream media appears to be preparing the long knives for the nominee du […]
