Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination

President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on July 9, 2018. When nominated, Kavanaugh was a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a position he was appointed to in 2006 by President George W. Bush. On October 6, 2018, following a supplemental FBI investigation into the allegations, the Senate voted 50–48 to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination.

About Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination in brief

Summary Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nominationOn July 9, 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. When nominated, Kavanaugh was a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a position he was appointed to in 2006 by President George W. Bush. The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Judge Kavanaugh and heard witness testimonies concerning his nomination over the course of a four-day hearing, September 4–7, 2018. Several days later, it was revealed that Christine Blasey Ford had written a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein in July accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault while they were both in high school in 1982. In the interim, two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, accused Kavanaugh of separate past instances ofsexual assault. Both Kavanaugh and BlaseY Ford testified before the Committee on September 27; the following day the nomination was forwarded to the full Senate on an 11–10 vote. Then, on October 6, 2018,. following a supplemental FBI investigation into the allegations, the Senate voted 50–48 to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme. Court. Kavanaugh had served as a law clerk for Justice Kennedy from 1993 to 1994. His name was not on either of the Trump campaign’s pre-election lists, but was one of those added in November 2017; a decision designed perhaps to make Kennedy more comfortable with retiring. The American Bar Association gave Kavanaugh a unanimous \”well qualified\” rating for his nomination.

On October 5, after Kavanaugh was accused of sexual impropriety, the chairman of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary announced that the committee had reopened its evaluation and that reassessment and re-vote would not be completed before the Senate vote. In reference to Kavanaugh’s voting alignment if confirmed, FiveThirtyEight used Lee Epstein et al.’s Judicial Common Space scores to find that Kavanaugh would likely be more conservative than justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, but less conservative than Justice Clarence Thomas, if placed on the Supreme Supreme Court. A Washington Post statistical analysis estimated that the ideologies of most of Trump’s announced candidates were “statistically indistinguishable’ and placed Kavanaugh between Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel alito. The ABA discontinued the re-evaluation because there is “no process for the evaluation of sitting judges or justices’”. Senate Republicans leaders expressed support for Kavanaugh’s nomination. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated his intent to support the nomination, referring to Kavanaugh as “highly regarded throughout the legal community’”. Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley also had high praise for Kavanaugh, calling him “one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees to come before theSenate’S Senate.” One law professor called the nomination of Kavanaugh “finest hour, his classiest, and his deep respect and deep respect for constitutional law and the democratic process,” calling him a “very talented jurist”