With the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in late July, the current administration is attempting to push through their replacement nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The hope of a hasty confirmation is most likely to allow Kavanaugh to begin work on the Supreme Court’s next session—beginning Oct. 1st.
The confirmation process for a Supreme court nominee begins with a nomination by the current administration. The nominee is reviewed by the Senate Judiciary committee—11 Republican, 10 Democrat—who review the nominee thoroughly and either recommend or reject the nominee. If recommended, a nominee must receive a majority vote from the Senate to be seated. Rules were recently changed from a 60 vote majority to 51 votes in the confirmation process of Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation.
Kavanaugh, if confirmed, would become a consistent conservative voice on the bench. What sets Kavanaugh apart from other potential nominees is his defense of presidential immunity, seemingly shaped by his time in the Bush administration. In a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article, he argued that sitting presidents should be immune from civil and criminal cases. The purpose of the propositions is to allow the president to govern without unnecessary distraction, making impeachment the singular mechanism for removing a toxic administration.
Kavanaugh is currently in hearings with the Senate Judiciary committee.
Recently, sexual assault allegations became public when Christine Blasey Ford wrote a letter claiming that, when she and Kavanaugh were in high school, he had drunkenly locked her in a room, and pinned her down while groping her and trying to remove her clothes. Only this past Sunday, a second allegation was reported by the New Yorker involving a second woman, Debbie Ramirez.
Kavanaugh has denied the two allegations. The White House continues to support their nominee. Now democratic senators are calling for a delay in the confirmation process for full investigations, demands that were denied by Senate Judiciary Chairperson Chuck Grassley when there was just one allegation. Currently, Ford is scheduled to scheduled to testify Thursday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but with the current state of the allegations, there will almost certainly be new developments.
