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- You can't have a much better resume for the Supreme Court than Kavanaugh. Yale Law School. Law Clerk to Justice Kennedy. 12 years as a Judge on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. 53 years of age.
- Kavanaugh also worked in the Solicitor General's office, as a member of Ken Starr's Independent Counsel's team in the investigation of President Clinton and served as both Associate Counsel and Staff Secretary to President Bush. In fact, Kavanaugh's wife was the former Personal Secretary to George W. Bush having worked for him both as Governor of Texas and as President. There is no doubt that Kavanaugh is deeply connected within the Washington establishment.
- If Trump wants to drain the swamp and poke the Washington establishment in the eye, Kavanaugh was not the pick to do it with. However, I think this shows the practical side of Trump's management side. Democrats like to portray Trump as an unhinged individual who refuses to listen to counsel from anyone. He is anything but when it comes to making decisions. He consults with a lot of people and he considers every angle. I believe he chose Kavanaugh because it is hard to argue with his credentials and he should be the most confirmable from Trump's list of 25 candidates.
- That being said, you can expect the Democrats to come at Kavanaugh with everything they have. I felt sorry for Kavanaugh's wife and daughters standing beside him last night. Everything Kavanaugh has said or done in his life is going to be scrutinized. They will look at every book he ever borrowed from the library and every movie that he watched on Netflix. They will try to talk to every girl he ever dated and every guy he ever had a beer with after playing basketball. They are going to look at every email he wrote in The White House and examine every comma in his 300 judicial opinions. It will be brazen and brutal. It is what Democrats do with Supreme Court nominees. It did not matter who Trump nominated. They would be the devil incarnate as soon as they were nominated. Brett Kavanaugh is that person right now.
- It is not something that Republicans have historically done. The GOP has generally focused on qualifications and not rejected Supreme Court nominees based on ideology. Take Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was a far left ideologue when she was nominated for the Court in 1993. She had been the ACLU's General Counsel. However, like Kavanaugh, you could not fault her judicial qualifications. She was confirmed 96-3. The same was also true of Justices Kagan and Sotamayor who were Obama selections. Kagan was confirmed by a vote of 63-37 and Sotamayor by a vote of 68-31. Compare those to the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch even though Gorsuch had a superior legal resume to both---Gorsuch was confirmed 54-45. Only three Democrats voted for Gorsuch.
For Democrats, it is all about ideology. Nothing else matters when it comes to the Supreme Court. The Democrats know that without the Supreme Court "making law" they have little hope in realizing their progressive ideals. They have generally failed in establishing any of their big ideals through Constitutional means. Most everything they care about did not come from legislation or constitutional amendment but by the opinions of five Supreme Court justices. Look no further than abortion and gay marriage as prime examples. Or the affirmation of the constitutionality of Obamacare.
The Gorsuch appointment did not really do anything to affect the balance of the Supreme Court. He was replacing the most reliable conservative justice on the Court. However, that did not stop the Democrats from going after Gorsuch.
The stakes are much higher with Kennedy's replacement. That is why you can expect the attacks to be much stronger on Kavanaugh.
Of course, all of this will be mere child's play should a vacancy open up on the Supreme Court for one of the "liberal" seats. I shudder to think of how that will play out.
I guess the lesson for the Democrats is...
"You live by the Court, you die by the Court."
This was never how it was designed by our Founding Fathers.
Consider what Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist Papers #78 on the judiciary where he made it very clear that the courts under the Constitution were "weakest of the three departments of power", would have the "least in capacity to annoy or injure" and "have neither force nor will".
Do you think that Alexander Hamilton would be shocked by what he would see today? (that includes the play about him as well)
What really scares Democrats about the Trump appointments to the Supreme Court and his other judicial appointments?
I think they are realizing that they may need to start relying on the "democratic" process to advance their agenda rather than a few judges.
The genius in our constitutional republic is that all power ultimately comes from the people. If the American people want a federal government with expansive power they can have it. They can allow gay marriage. Or ban it in all 50 states. The same with abortion. They can ban the use of alcohol or repeal the ban and allow it again. They can require everyone to buy health insurance or anything else.
It is simply not within the power of a handful of judges to suddenly discover fundamental rights that have somehow been hidden in the Constitution for over 200 years and start applying them to 325 million citizens by fiat.
If Democrats want to change America they need to win the heart and minds of voters. Not just in the Queens, San Francisco or inner city Detroit. They need to win elections across the 50 states to advance their socialist and progressive agenda The problem is that this agenda has been pretty soundly rejected over the last eight years by the voters.
It is time for Democrats to be democrats. That is not easy. It is a lot easier to demagogue, demean and denigrate a Supreme Court nominee.
Let's hope that this will change. However, it will not change soon enough to spare what Brett Kavanaugh will have to endure over the next couple of months.
"You live by the Court, you die by the Court."
This was never how it was designed by our Founding Fathers.
Consider what Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist Papers #78 on the judiciary where he made it very clear that the courts under the Constitution were "weakest of the three departments of power", would have the "least in capacity to annoy or injure" and "have neither force nor will".
Do you think that Alexander Hamilton would be shocked by what he would see today? (that includes the play about him as well)
Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community.
The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.
What really scares Democrats about the Trump appointments to the Supreme Court and his other judicial appointments?
I think they are realizing that they may need to start relying on the "democratic" process to advance their agenda rather than a few judges.
The genius in our constitutional republic is that all power ultimately comes from the people. If the American people want a federal government with expansive power they can have it. They can allow gay marriage. Or ban it in all 50 states. The same with abortion. They can ban the use of alcohol or repeal the ban and allow it again. They can require everyone to buy health insurance or anything else.
It is simply not within the power of a handful of judges to suddenly discover fundamental rights that have somehow been hidden in the Constitution for over 200 years and start applying them to 325 million citizens by fiat.
If Democrats want to change America they need to win the heart and minds of voters. Not just in the Queens, San Francisco or inner city Detroit. They need to win elections across the 50 states to advance their socialist and progressive agenda The problem is that this agenda has been pretty soundly rejected over the last eight years by the voters.
It is time for Democrats to be democrats. That is not easy. It is a lot easier to demagogue, demean and denigrate a Supreme Court nominee.
Let's hope that this will change. However, it will not change soon enough to spare what Brett Kavanaugh will have to endure over the next couple of months.
An interesting fact is that both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh went to the same Jesuit high school - graduating two years apart. Kavanaugh even mentioned the "Men for Others" motto in his nomination that is the basis of all Jesuit schools around the country - unfortunately we've seen many negatives about these 'lack of diverse appointments'.
ReplyDeleteOne should question whether the downplaying of Christian values in public institutions is part of the problem, especially when the stated values of the institutions themselves are often embodied in a faith-based context
Yes. Both graduated from Georgetown Prep.
DeleteAnother interesting fact, assuming Kavanaugh is confirmed, is that there will continue to be no one on the Court that was raised as a Protestant. 3 Jews and 6 Roman Catholics. ( Kennedy is also a Catholic).Quite a lack of diversity in that regard considering that over 50% of USA identifies as Protestant. Even stranger when you consider that Trump would not have been elected but for overwhelming vote of Evangelical Christians.