Hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh will begin in September, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced Friday.
Grassley predicted that the hearings will span three or four days, starting with opening statements on Sept. 4 and questioning on Sept. 5.
“As I said after his nomination, Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most respected jurists in the country and one of the most qualified nominees ever to be considered by the Senate for a seat on our highest court,” Grassley said in a statement. “My team has already reviewed every page of the over 4,800 pages of judicial opinions Judge Kavanaugh wrote, over 6,400 pages of opinions he joined, more than 125,000 pages of records produced from his White House legal service, and over 17,000 pages in response to the most comprehensive questionnaire ever submitted as a nominee.”
“He’s a mainstream judge,” Grassley added. “He has a record of judicial independence and applying the law as it is written.”
The announcement comes as Democrats and others have sought to unearth Kavanaugh’s records, as he has accrued a significant paper trail throughout his career. Grassley claimed that the schedule would give the panel plenty of time to review documents from Kavanaugh’s time in the George W. Bush White House, a point of contention.
In addition to working on independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation into former President Bill Clinton, Starr also served in the White House as staff secretary and an associate counsel for Bush and wrote almost 300 opinions during his time as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
White House spokesman Raj Shah applauded Grassley following the announcement.
“With the Senate already reviewing more documents than for any other Supreme Court nominee in history, Chairman Grassley has lived up to his promise to lead an open, transparent and fair process,” Shah said in a statement. “Judge Kavanaugh looks forward to addressing the Judiciary Committee in public hearings for the American people to view.”
Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the Judicial Crisis Network, an outside advocacy group that has backed Kavanaugh, said that there was no need to receive more documents, as Democrats have already vocalized they will not back him.
“Democrats have already announced that they oppose him, so this claim that they need more time or more documents is nothing more than a show, a fishing expedition designed to obstruct and create gridlock,” Severino said in a statement Friday. “Judge Kavanaugh has been endorsed by leading figures on the Right and the Left. He is a mainstream nominee who will base his decisions on the aw and the Constitution.”
Kavanaugh will need a simple majority to be confirmed. A total of 50 votes will be needed to confirm Kavanaugh in the event that Republican Sen. John McCain remains in his home state of Arizona, where he is battling brain cancer.
Kavanaugh is the second Supreme Court justice President Trump has nominated since taking office. Neil Gorsuch was Trump’s first pick; he was confirmed to the seat vacated by the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
