Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court

Kavanaugh would replace Kennedy, for whom he clerked for on the Supreme Court. Kennedy sent shockwaves across Washington, D.C., when he announced late last month he will be retiring after 30 years on the high court, effective July 31.

“In keeping with President Reagan’s legacy, I do not ask about a nominee’s personal opinions,” Trump said Monday. “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.”

Trump praised Kavanaugh for his “impeccable credentials, unsurpassed qualifications, and a proven commitment to equal justice under the law.” He also urged the Senate to act swiftly to confirm Kavanaugh.

[Related: John McCain praises Brett Kavanaugh as ‘fair, mainstream judge’ with ‘impeccable credentials’]

“The rule of law is our nation’s proud heritage. It is the cornerstone of our freedom. It is what guarantees equal justice, and the Senate now has the chance to protect this glorious heritage by sending Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court,” Trump said.

Taking to the podium after Trump’s announcement, Kavanaugh detailed his judicial philosophy, describing it as “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,” he said.

Kavanaugh also vowed, if confirmed by the Senate, to protect the Constitution.

“I will keep an open mind in every case and I will always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the American rule of law,” he said.

Trump’s selection of Kavanaugh earned praise from Republican and conservative advocacy groups, who touted his credentials and reputation among the legal community.

“Judge Kavanaugh has sterling academic credentials. He is widely admired for his intellect, experience, and exemplary judicial temperament. He has won the respect of his peers and is highly regarded throughout the legal community, and his judicial record demonstrates a firm understanding of the role of a judge in our Republic: Setting aside personal views and political preferences in order to interpret our laws as they are written,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.

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Leonard Leo, an outside adviser to the president for judicial selection, highlighted Kavanaugh’s lengthy judicial record, which demonstrates his commitment to originalism.

“Brett Kavanaugh is among the most distinguished and respected judges in the country, with nearly 300 opinions that clearly demonstrate fairness and a commitment to interpreting the Constitution as it’s written and enforcing the limits on government power contained in the Constitution,” Leo said in a statement.

Kavanaugh was joined at the White House by his wife, Ashley, and two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth.

Also among those in attendance for the president’s announcement were Maureen Scalia, the widow of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, former Attorney General Ed Meese, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Kavanaugh was considered the favorite to succeed Kennedy, as he is considered to be a textualist and originalist. He edged out federal appeals court judges Raymond Kethledge, Thomas Hardiman and Amy Coney Barrett, a favorite of social conservatives.

But he could face a tough confirmation battle, as Senate Democrats have spent the last week laying the groundwork to oppose Trump’s nominee. Their efforts focus primarily on Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a woman’s right to an abortion, and the Affordable Care Act once the Supreme Court boasts a solid conservative majority.

Trump’s political opponents have taken particular umbrage with Kavanaugh’s writings about criminal investigations and civil lawsuits involving the sitting president, an issue of interest today given special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Kavanaugh was born in Washington, D.C., and attended Georgetown Preparatory School, overlapping briefly with Justice Neil Gorsuch. He graduated from Yale College in 1987 and Yale Law School in 1990.

After graduating from law school, Kavanaugh held a series of clerkships, working as a law clerk for Judge Walter Stapleton of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

During the October 1993 term, Kavanaugh clerked for Kennedy on the Supreme Court.

In 2003, President George W. Bush tapped Kavanaugh to serve on the D.C. Circuit, considered the second most-powerful court in the nation. His nomination, though, was held up by Senate Democrats for three years.

During his confirmation hearing in 2006, Kavanaugh faced questions about his time working for independent counsel Kenneth Starr during the investigation into former President Bill Clinton. At the time, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., now the Senate minority leader, accused Kavanaugh of spending much of his career “in partisan and polarizing issues.”

Despite the concerns from Senate Democrats, Kavanaugh was confirmed, 57-36.

Through his 12 years on the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh has authored opinions in more than 280 cases as of the end of 2017, according to Empirical SCOTUS, a website devoted to analysis of the Supreme Court, weighing in on hot button issues like abortion and the Second Amendment.

In a dissent last year in the case involving an illegal immigrant teenager seeking an abortion, Kavanaugh warned the majority’s ruling “is ultimately based on a constitutional principle as novel as it is wrong: a new right for unlawful minors in U.S. government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand, thereby barring any government efforts to expeditiously transfer the minors to their immigration sponsors before they make that momentous life decision.”

Heller demonstrated his commitment to originalist principles in a 2011 dissent in the case Heller v. District of Columbia, a successor to the 2008 case, though this one challenged a D.C. law that banned possession of most semi-automatic rifles and required registration of all firearms.

“In my view, Heller and McDonald leave little doubt that courts are to assess gun bans and regulations based on text, history and tradition, not by a balancing test such as strict or intermediate scrutiny,” Kavanaugh wrote, referencing the two earlier Second Amendment cases decided by the Supreme Court.

He said he believed D.C.’s ban on semi-automatic rifles and the registration requirement are unconstitutional.

Kavanaugh has described his view of judges in a manner similar to that expressed by Chief Justice John Roberts during his own confirmation hearings, who likened judges to umpires.

“I believe very deeply in those visions of the rule of law as a law of rules, and of the judge as umpire,” Kavanaugh said in a 2017 keynote address at Notre Dame Law School. “By that, I mean a neutral, impartial judiciary that decides cases based on settled principles without regard to policy preferences or political allegiances or which part is on which side in a particular case.”

When he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks, Kavanaugh is likely to face questions about his views on independent counsels and criminal investigations involving sitting presidents.

The impetus for those questions is a 2009 article for the Minnesota Law Review, in which Kavanaugh called for Congress to enact a statute “providing that any personal civil suits against presidents, like certain members of the military, be deferred while the president is in office.”

He said Congress should consider doing the same with criminal investigations and prosecutions of the president.

Kavanaugh went on to say that “even the lesser burdens of a criminal investigation — including preparing for questioning by criminal investigators—are time-consuming and distracting.”

“Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the president’s focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people,” Kavanaugh wrote. “And a president who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as president.”

He is likely to also hear from Senate Democrats about his views on Roe and stare decisis.

Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, are supportive of abortion rights. Their votes will be pivotal for the GOP-controlled Senate, as Republicans have only 50 voting members.

Collins said she would not support a Supreme Court nominee who showed a “hostility” to Roe.

Conservatives, meanwhile, may take issue with his decisions in two cases involving Obamacare.

In one 2011 case, Seven-Sky v. Holder, Kavanaugh wrote in a dissent that he believed the Anti-Injunction Act, enacted in 1867, prevented the court jurisdiction in the case at the time.

In the second case from 2015, Sissel v. Department of Health and Human Services, Kavanaugh dissented from the denial of rehearing en banc, writing Obamacare complied with the Constitution’s Origination Clause, “but not for the reason articulated” by the D.C. Circuit’s three-judge panel.

Some conservatives categorized Kavanaugh’s two opinions as having “upheld” Obamacare, though that characterization was refuted by others.

Trump narrowed his pick to replace Kennedy in a short period of time, having kicked off the interview process less than a week after Kennedy announced his retirement.

McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate would vote to confirm Trump’s nominee in the fall, which will set in motion a messy confirmation battle just before the November midterm elections.