Best Evaluation of Judge Kavanaugh’s Nomination is His Twelve-Year Record on the D.C. Circuit Court
‘So I hope that our Democratic colleagues who are demanding even more documents have taken the time to read the twelve years of opinions from Judge Kavanaugh’s exemplary time on the second highest court in the nation. Because when it was the Supreme Court nominee of a Democratic president, they themselves insisted that judicial opinions were more important than any other papers for evaluating a Supreme Court nominee.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the president’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh:
“As the Senate reconvenes to cross more items off our to-do list, we should take pride in all we’ve already accomplished this summer. This month alone, we’ve already advanced the Senate’s Farm Bill to conference committee and named conferees to finalize this important legislation.
“We also passed another set of appropriations measures. The Senate has now approved 7 of the 12 measures for next year. And we finalized the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2019, which President Trump signed into law on Monday. But the reason we’re reconvening today is that important work remains for the weeks ahead. That includes more progress on appropriations. And it includes confirming more of the president’s nominees.
“Last week, Chairman Grassley announced that Judiciary Committee hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, whom the president has nominated to serve on the Supreme Court, will begin September 4th. Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony will only add to the enormous wealth of information about his legal qualifications, his professional reputation, and his jurisprudence that is already available.
“Already, the committee has received nearly 200,000 pages of material that relate to this nomination. By all accounts, this is already the most material ever submitted for any Supreme Court nomination. The most material ever. But of course, the best indicator of how Brett Kavanaugh will approach the role of a federal judge is the way he’s discharged his duties as a federal judge in the twelve-plus years he’s served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. 12-plus years. More than 300 opinions.
“I can hardly articulate this point better than my friend the senior Senator from Vermont. Here’s what he had to say back when the Senate was evaluating the nomination of then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court: ‘We do not have to imagine what kind of a judge she will be because we see what kind of a judge she has been.’ A number of other prominent Democrats echoed that sentiment, including my friend the Democratic Leader. He called Republican requests for additional documents related to the Sotomayor nomination a ‘fishing expedition’ and said Republicans were ‘grasping at straws.’
“My friend from New York said ‘everybody knows’ that then-Judge Sotomayor’s ‘record on the bench’ was ‘the best way to evaluate’ her nomination. So I hope that our Democratic colleagues who are demanding even more documents have taken the time to read the twelve years of opinions from Judge Kavanaugh’s exemplary time on the second highest court in the nation. Because when it was the Supreme Court nominee of a Democratic president, they themselves insisted that judicial opinions were more important than any other papers for evaluating a Supreme Court nominee.
“Well, we have Judge Kavanaugh’s opinions. And we have this record-breaking pile of additional materials -- far, far more materials than were produced for the Sotomayor nomination, by the way. Twelve years of opinions, and the most materials in history. Every Senator who’s actually willing to give this nominee fair consideration will be more than fully equipped to do just that.”
Related Issues: Supreme Court, Judicial Nominations, Nominations
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