Trump Nominates Brett Kavanaugh For Kennedy’s Open Seat, Despite Ties To The Bush White House
At the nomination ceremony, Judge Brett Kavanaugh said that his “judicial philosophy is straightforward. A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written. And a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.”
The New York Times:
Brett Kavanaugh Is Trump’s Pick For Supreme Court
President Trump on Monday nominated Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, a politically connected member of Washington’s conservative legal establishment, to fill Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court, setting up an epic confirmation battle and potentially cementing the court’s rightward tilt for a generation. (Landler and Haberman, 7/9)
The Washington Post:
Trump Supreme Court Pick: Brett Kavanaugh
“In keeping with President Reagan’s legacy, I do not ask about a nominee’s personal opinions,” Trump said in an announcement in the East Room of the White House. “What matters is not a judge’s political views but whether they can set aside those views to do what the law and the Constitution require. I am pleased to say that I have found, without doubt, such a person.” (Costa, Barnes and Sonmez, 7/9)
Los Angeles Times:
Brett Kavanaugh, A Washington Veteran, Is Trump's Second Pick For The Supreme Court
During the White House ceremony in which Trump named him, Kavanaugh declared that his “judicial philosophy is straightforward. A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written. And a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.” Critics said beneath that rhetoric is a highly conservative, partisan lawyer. Kavanaugh's extensive record in Washington will provide the opposition with ammunition. In the late 1990s, Kavanaugh played a lead role in the aggressive investigation of President Clinton led by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. He was an author of the Starr Report, which urged the House to impeach the president for lying about a sexual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. (Savage, 7/9)
The Wall Street Journal:
President Trump Chooses Brett Kavanaugh For Supreme Court Vacancy
The prime-time announcement required Mr. Trump to set aside misgivings about Judge Kavanaugh’s ties to the George W. Bush administration that Mr. Trump has frequently criticized, according to people familiar with the process. He also restrained an impulse to make a flashier choice, these people said. Mr. Trump settled on the pick after a rapid-fire search that opened on June 27, when 81-year-old Justice Anthony Kennedy told the president he was stepping down, creating the second vacancy on the court during Mr. Trump’s presidency. (Radnofsky, Nicholas and Kendall, 7/10)
Politico:
How A Private Meeting With Kennedy Helped Trump Get To ‘Yes’ On Kavanaugh
After Justice Anthony Kennedy told President Donald Trump he would relinquish his seat on the Supreme Court, the president emerged from his private meeting with the retiring jurist focused on one candidate to name as his successor: Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Kennedy’s former law clerk. Trump, according to confidants and aides close to the White House, has become increasingly convinced that “the judges,” as he puts it, or his administration’s remaking of the federal judiciary in its conservative image, is central to his legacy as president. And he credits Kennedy, who spent more than a decade at the center of power on the court, for helping give him the opportunity. (Cadelago, Cook and Restuccia, 7/9)
The Washington Post:
Who Is Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's Nominee?
Brett M. Kavanaugh, the federal judge nominated by President Trump on Monday to the Supreme Court, has endorsed robust views of the powers of the president, consistently siding with arguments in favor of broad executive authority during his 12 years on the bench in Washington. He has called for restructuring the government’s consumer watchdog agency so the president could remove the director and has been a leading defender of the government’s position when it comes to using military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects. (Marimow, 7/9)
The Washington Post:
Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination: Conservative Pick Will Need Senate Confirmation
Kavanaugh is likely to be far more conservative than Kennedy, who was known as a swing vote on the court. These ideological estimates of the current justices and Kavanaugh are based on the Judicial Common Space system developed by political science researchers Lee Epstien, Andrew D. Martin, Jeffrey A. Segal and Chad Westerland. The scores take into account the voting patterns of Supreme Court justices and a combination of factors for judges of lower courts, including clerkships and the political affiliation of the nominating president. Based on these scores, Kavanaugh would be on par with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas at the conservative end of the court. That’s assuming he’s confirmed by the Senate, which can be a long process. (7/9)
The Associated Press:
A Look At Supreme Court Nominee Kavanaugh's Notable Opinions
Here are summaries of some of [Kavanaugh's] notable opinions. (7/10)
Politico:
Republicans Brace For Brutal Supreme Court Fight
Mitch McConnell and his Republican Caucus are enthusiastic about the prospect of filling a Supreme Court vacancy before the midterm elections. But they don’t deny the enormity of the task at hand. (Everett and Schor, 7/9)
Politico:
Senate Swing Votes Prepare For SCOTUS Onslaught
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) were under intense scrutiny even before Trump tapped Kavanaugh, a veteran appeals court judge. But they quickly began feeling the pinch as more than a half-dozen prominent liberals in the caucus joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in opposing Kavanaugh as a hard-line conservative minutes after the nomination was rolled out — even as the White House and Senate Republicans began trumpeting the nominee as a “mainstream” pick. (Schor, 7/9)
Politico:
Anti-Abortion Groups Rally Around Trump’s SCOTUS Pick
“I have great hope that ... now there may be five judges to allow states under the authority of the 10th Amendment, to enact their own [policies] into law on the abortion issue,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List. Kavanaugh has passed up opportunities in legal opinions to stake out a position on the landmark 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion. And some conservative critics before the announcement raised fresh concerns about comments he made 12 years ago pledging to follow Roe, calling it the “binding precedent of the court.” (Cancryn, 7/9)
NPR:
Kavanaugh Nomination Sparks Partisan Uproar On Abortion Rights
Outside groups on both sides of the debate over abortion rights immediately issued predictions about what the nomination would mean for the future of Roe v. Wade. Dana Singiser, the vice president for public policy and government relations at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told reporters Monday night, "The right to access abortion safely and legally in this country is clearly on the line." Anti-abortion-rights activists do not disagree. Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the conservative Susan B. Anthony List, told reporters on a press call that the nomination of a fifth conservative justice is the culmination of years of work getting Republicans elected to all branches of government. (Snell, 7/10)