Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh praised the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, calling it Wednesday the “single greatest moment in Supreme Court history.”
“The unanimity that Chief Justice [Earl] Warren achieved, which is a great moment, the fact that it lived up to the text of the Equal Protection Clause, the fact that it understood the real-world consequences of segregation on African-American students who were segregated,” Kavanaugh said in explaining his reverence for the 1954 landmark decision, which led to the desegregation of schools.
Kavanaugh called the decision “inspirational.”
In detailing his regard for Brown, Kavanaugh could avoid a scenario where he is asked to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee whether the 1954 case was rightly decided.
Senate Democrats on the panel have posed the question to President Trump’s nominees to the lower courts, and some have declined to weigh in.
During her confirmation hearing this year, for example, Wendy Vitter, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, told Democrats definitively that saying whether Brown was rightly decided would be getting “into a difficult area.”
Kavanaugh appeared before the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for the second day of his confirmation hearing, which is expected to span four days.
He has thus far faced questions from Democrats about his views on abortion, healthcare, and executive power.
