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Judge Brett Kavanaugh named Trump's second Supreme Court justice - live updates
President Trump announced his selection of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be his second Supreme Court justice Monday night. Speaking in the East Room of the White House, the president said that what mattered to him was "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 a doubt, such a person," he said in announcing Kavanaugh's nomination. "There is no one in America more qualified for this position and no one more deserving," the president also said. The D.C. Circuit Appeals Court judge "has impeccable credentials, unsurpassed qualifications, and aproven commitment to equal justice under the law," the president continued. He's "a judge's judge, a true thought leader among his peers. He's a brilliant jurist with a clear and effective writing style, universally regarded as one of the finest and sharpest legal minds of our time."
Kavanaugh thanked the president for the nomination, and in anticipating his coming meetings with senators on Capitol hill tomorrow, said, "I believe that an independent judiciary is the crown jewel of our constitutional republic." He promised, "If confirmed by the Senate, 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."
Within a few days of Justice Anthony Kennedy's announcement that he would retire from the court this summer, Mr. Trump had narrowed the field to four: Judges Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Thomas Hardiman and Raymond Kethledge -- all young and all viewed as conservative. Ultimately, the president settled on Kavanaugh, the establishment favorite.
On the issue everyone wants to know about:
Kavanaugh has stated that he considers Roe v. Wade binding under the principle of stare decisis and would seek to uphold it, but has also ruled in favor of some restrictions for abortion.
In May 2006, Kavanaugh stated he "would follow Roe v. Wade faithfully and fully" and that the issue of the legality of abortion has already "been decided by the Supreme Court". During the hearing, he stated that a right to an abortion has been found "many times", citing Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
In October 2017, Kavanaugh joined an unsigned divided panel opinion which found that the Office of Refugee Resettlement could prevent an unaccompanied minor in its custody from obtaining an abortion. Days later, the en banc D.C. Circuit reversed that judgment, with Kavanaugh now dissenting. The D.C. Circuit's opinion was then itself vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Garza v. Hargan (2018).
See also:
- SCOTUSblog + Round-up + Reactions
- Brett Kavanaugh's track record
- What Brett Kavanaugh could mean for the future of abortion, marriage equality and much more
- Can the Supreme Court confirmation process ever be repaired?
- Press: Democrats must hang tough on high court pick
Previously: SCOTUS's Justice Anthony Kennedy to Retire
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday July 10 2018, @01:04PM (17 children)
It is according to the mainstream media:
https://news.google.com/search?q=roe%20v%20wade&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen [google.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 10 2018, @01:12PM (16 children)
Well pretty much everything I read there turns out to be wrong so whats really going on?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday July 10 2018, @01:54PM (15 children)
You can't really point to just one issue. There's a myriad of small and large issues spread out over a long period of time.
Here's an issue. Democrats lost an election that should have been a cinch on paper, in part because of a low energy candidate with a cloud of misconduct surrounding her. And now Democrats have to pay the price, for many years. Consider that Brett K. over here could easily be trying cases on the SCOTUS for the next 30 years. That 2045 Singularity rolls around, and he's probably still there. Furthermore, President Trump could easily be picking a 3rd Justice, and even a 4th or 5th if he wins a second term. So SCOTUS will be right-leaning for a long time to come.
The track record link in the summary mentions some of the decisions he's made. Here's some stuff relevant to our crowd:
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 10 2018, @02:04PM (9 children)
He sounds like a letter of the law type of dude.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by jmorris on Tuesday July 10 2018, @03:24PM (8 children)
Which makes him a horrible person. To Proggies America is a horribly evil place with horribly evil laws written by horrible evil white men. If the guy upholds any of that evil stuff he is evil incarnate himself. Hell, just look at the evil white heterosexual maleness of him!
I'm looking forward to mining the salty tears of the hapless proggies as they lose. Even better, actuarial tables give pretty good odds of either Breyer or Ginsberg leaving the court while Trump is POTUS, which is of course the only way either of those rabid partisans would leave, feet first. Even a decent chance of BOTH going, God does seem to be inclined to give Trump unnaturally uncanny luck. Which is kinda odd considering his history.
I'm looking forward to abortion ceasing to be THE major issue of our day. With Roe overturned State Legislatures will quickly be forced to adapt local laws to local views and everybody will basically be happy with the result. And with it removed as a bad precedent a lot of other bad law can be cleared off the books. The Rule of Law has a chance to return to the land. But we will need at least one more seat to make that kind of Restoration stick.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 10 2018, @03:48PM (2 children)
You troll but that's a disturbingly accurate representation of all too many of them.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by jmorris on Tuesday July 10 2018, @04:23PM (1 child)
It is hard to troll this one, reality is too insane. Isn't it a certainty that at least one of the late nite "comics" will have their trained seal audience clapping away at some dumb attack on his "unbearable whiteness?" Poor bastard didn't even wife up a PoC and have mixed race children to hold up as a shield. Could have at least adopted some pet Haitians as intersectional cover. And of course to complete the insanity trifecta, during the months of racist attacks we all see coming on this poor bastard, anyone who notices and calls them out will be the "real racists" because THEY can never be racist, no matter how racist they act.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 10 2018, @05:51PM
Hard to troll? Next you'll tell me that jmorris has trouble breathing sulfur.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday July 10 2018, @08:29PM (3 children)
Which makes him a horrible person. To Proggies America is a horribly evil place with horribly evil laws written by horrible evil white men. If the guy upholds any of that evil stuff he is evil incarnate himself. Hell, just look at the evil white heterosexual maleness of him!
Per usual Jmo can't win a debate with any of the actual humans posting on this site so he resorts to debating a figment of his imagination. Classic!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 10 2018, @09:18PM (2 children)
Seemed fairly dead on the money for you to me. If that's not the case you might want to occasionally type some words that might let folks know that despite bitching about absolutely everything, you do love your country and aren't a fashionable bigot.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Aegis on Tuesday July 10 2018, @11:02PM (1 child)
Unlike you two, DeathMonkey posted actual quotes from the subject at hand to criticize.
Your attempt at debate is to circle-jerk with jmorris all over that strawman you just constructed.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 11 2018, @01:12AM
That wasn't debate, that was a juvenile insult with no point except mockery.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 10 2018, @08:45PM
I'm sure there will be plenty of salty tears (and blood) on the floor before this is all over with. I won't be at all surprised if a fair bit of those tears and blood are your own.
If you are looking for abortion to cease being THE major issue of the day, then overturning Roe v Wade is NOT the way to make that happen. Just the opposite, in fact. Look! On the horizon! The 1980s are galloping back toward us again!
*Snort* Ummm, yeah. I'm sure everyone will be fine with the end result.
Such as? No, really. I'm genuinely curious about this. What "bad law" has come out of the Roe v Wade precedent? Please enlighten us.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday July 10 2018, @05:22PM
i thought the guy was 65 for some reason, but he is only 53.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 10 2018, @05:23PM (3 children)
There are two problems with that statement:
1. It's unclear how much of a price the Democrats really have to pay. Hillary Clinton really didn't: She can live quite comfortably on her 9-figures of assets for the rest of her life, plus whatever she got for the book complaining about losing. Pelosi, Schumer, and company are going to be just fine. Any of the candidates who lost their seats go on to be lobbyists, give high-dollar speeches, get news appearance fees, or in rare cases end up at think tanks, so they'll be just fine. And the big-money donors are getting what they need from the Democrats, which also means the Democratic-affiliated political consultants are doing just fine.
2. Regardless of the price the Democrats have to pay, it's entirely possible a lot of citizens have to pay a very steep price for basically unopposed rule by a party that both believes government doesn't work and is doing everything in their power to prove it. For example, thousands of Puerto Ricans are still paying the price for incompetent-at-best disaster management that means much of the island has yet to recover from a hurricane that was almost a year ago. Had Obama's FEMA director Craig Fugate or one of his protoge's still been in office, disaster response would have been likely much better, and the island would likely have electricity, fixed roads, and sufficient food and water supplies.
I don't give a damn about the price the Democratic leadership has to pay. I care a great deal about the price thousands of ordinary citizens have to pay for political foul-ups.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 10 2018, @05:28PM (2 children)
That's a quality position I can get behind. Every time a person picks people over party, an angel gets its wings.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday July 10 2018, @07:02PM (1 child)
Every time a person picks people over party, an angel gets its wings.
You should start telling that to the people you vote for.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 10 2018, @09:20PM
What've Gary Johnson or Donald Duck got to do with anything?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.