Don’t hold your breath, but Brett Kavanaugh (basically) was confirmed to the United States Supreme Court today.
After a two-hour meeting, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, reported that the nominee believed Roe v. Wade was “settled law.”
“We talked about whether he considered Roe to be settled law,” Collins told reporters after the Supreme Court sit-down. “He said that he agreed with what Justice Roberts said at his nomination hearing, in which he said it was settled law. We had a very good, thorough discussion.”
While Collins didn’t say definitively how she would vote, Kavanaugh should feel confident getting his measurements taken for a new set of flowing black robes. She is the 50th vote for confirmation, the last major obstacle to a conservative Supreme Court bench so long as Vice President Pence doesn’t have any trouble driving to Capitol Hill to break a potential tie.
Collins has made abortion her standard from the beginning, telling CNN earlier in July that she wouldn’t vote for “a nominee who demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade.” Kavanaugh, it seems, has shown no such hostility, and that bodes well for his confirmation.
Granted, there are other considerations that Collins could consider but, again and historically, abortion has always been the main hang-up. Once Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch said Roe was settled law, Collins gave both the green light.
Consider the rest of the playing field.
Republicans are mostly unified around the nominee with only Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, remaining silent after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., dropped his voiced opposition earlier in July. While Democrats seemed unified in their opposition at first, a number of red state senators appear to be wavering. Already Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia have reported somewhat favorably on the nominee. Both voted to confirm Gorsuch and both seem primed to do the same for Kavanaugh.
If Collins was convinced by Kavanaugh’s answer about Roe, there seems little reason to delay the vote.
