Federal Courts and Nominations

4 things to know about Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee

The 53-year-old judge is Trump’s pick to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. The nomination is sure to be a heated one for Kavanaugh, who used to be an aide to President George W. Bush. Here are four things to know about Trump’s pick:

1. He seems to think sitting presidents should be protected from indictment, reports Vox. In a 2009 article, Kavanaugh wrote:

A . . . possible concern is that the country needs a check against a bad-behaving or law-breaking President. But the Constitution already provides that check. If the President does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available. No single prosecutor, judge, or jury should be able to accomplish what the Constitution assigns to the Congress. . . . The President’s job is difficult enough as is. And the country loses when the President’s focus is distracted by the burdens of civil litigation or criminal investigation and possible prosecution.

2. He doesn’t like net neutrality, reports Variety:

He’s not only certain that the FCC lacks authority to impose the regulations, but that such rules violate the First Amendment.

In a dissent last year, he wrote that “Supreme Court precedent establishes that internet service providers have a First Amendment right to exercise editorial discretion over whether and how to carry internet content.” He added that the government “may interfere with that right only if it shows that an internet service provider has market power in a relevant geographic market.” That was something the FCC did not do, he noted.

3. While he has not expressed outright opposition to Roe v. Wade, last year he dissented in a ruling that said an undocumented immigrant teenager in detention was entitled to seek an abortionreports CNN:

In his dissent, Kavanaugh wrote the Supreme Court has held that “the government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion.” He wrote that the high court has “held that the government may further those interests so long as it does not impose an undue burden on a woman seeking an abortion.” He said the majority opinion was “based on a constitutional principle as novel as it is wrong: a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in U.S. government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand.” He added, however, that “all parties to this case recognize Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey as precedents we must follow.”

4. He’s no friend of the environment, says a 2015 report from E&E News:

A Republican operative-turned-federal judge has emerged as one of the most powerful critics of President Obama’s environmental rules.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh–a 50-year-old George W. Bush administration appointee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit–has pounded the administration in a series of legal opinions rebuffing some of its most high-profile air pollution rules. And because he’s widely seen as an influential voice with Supreme Court justices and a leading contender for a GOP nomination to the high court, Kavanaugh’s legal moves are being closely watched by those on both sides of the environmental debate.

Given Kavanaugh’s “track record in these important cases over the last few years, I would think him a judge that is more open to second-guessing the EPA than nearly anyone,” said Tom Donnelly, counsel at the left-leaning Constitutional Accountability Center.

More from Federal Courts and Nominations

Federal Courts and Nominations
January 17, 2024

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Sign-On Letter Prioritizing Diverse Judges

Dear Senator, On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the...
Federal Courts and Nominations
January 23, 2023

BLOG: How Do We Fix an Ailing Court? Lessons From Reconstruction

The Supreme Court is ailing, but you wouldn’t know it from Chief Justice Roberts’s 2022...
By: David H. Gans
Federal Courts and Nominations
November 30, 2022

RELEASE: How Do We Fix an Ailing Court? Reconstruction Provides Critical Lessons

WASHINGTON – Today, Constitutional Accountability Center is releasing new scholarship by CAC Civil Rights Director...
By: David H. Gans
Federal Courts and Nominations
November 29, 2022

ISSUE BRIEF: Court Reform and the Promise of Justice: Lessons from Reconstruction

Lewis and Clark Law Review, Vol. 27, No. 3, 2023 The Supreme Court is broken....
By: David H. Gans
Federal Courts and Nominations
August 15, 2022

BLOG: Building the Next Generation of Constitutional Progressives

This summer, CAC welcomed four interns to learn our method of understanding the progressive promise...
Federal Courts and Nominations
July 14, 2022

Supreme Court Review: The Future of Supreme Court

Host: NYCLA’s Civil Rights and Liberties Committee and NYCLA’s Supreme Court Reform Committee
Program Chair: Elliot Dolby Shields, Co-chair NYCLA’s Civil Rights Committee; Chair, NYCLA’s Supreme Court Reform...
Participants: David H. Gans, Elliot Dolby Shields, Amir Ali, Alicia Bannon, Katherine M. Franke, Rachel Rebouche