Who is Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's SCOTUS pick?
President Trump picked Brett Kavanaugh to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. After a contentious confirmation battle including sexual assault allegations against the nominee, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Kavanaugh to the High Court.
The Senate narrowly approved Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court on Saturday on a 50-48 vote, but serious questions remain about allegations against him of sexual misconduct and lying under oath. These might lead to his impeachment if Democrats win control of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.
At this point, any impeachment effort against Kavanaugh would be premature – and couldn’t realistically begin as long as Democrats are in the minority in the House.
Instead, a real, in-depth FBI investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh is needed. This investigation should not have a time limit and FBI agents should interview far more witnesses than they did in their quickie 5-day mini-investigation that concluded Wednesday. If Democrats win majority control of the House they could authorize such a new investigation.
The impeachment process for Supreme Court justices is spelled out in the Constitution and it works just about like the impeachment process for the presidents. First, House members would consider articles of impeachment on charges of “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Those last two terms are only vaguely defined, essentially giving House members the power to determine what they cover.
If a majority of House members vote to impeach Justice Kavanaugh he would have to stand trial in the Senate. But he could only removed from office if convicted by a two-thirds majority vote – meaning 67 of the 100 senators.
Democrats can’t possibly get a two-thirds Senate majority even if they win every Senate seat up for grabs in the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
Since only a third of Senate seats are up for election every two years, a Democratic sweep of every Senate seat on the ballot – which no one seriously expects – would only increase the number of Democratic senators from the current 49 to a simple majority of 57. That would be 10 short of the number needed to convict on impeachment charges.
Nevertheless, despite the extreme unlikelihood that a substantial number of Republican senators would join Democrats to remove Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court, if Democrats gain majority control of the House they would wise to launch an investigation to try to determine if charges of sexual assault and lying under oath against Kavanaugh are true or false.
The investigation is needed because right now the legitimacy of our nation’s highest court is in question. Not only are there still unresolved questions of sexual assault and lying under oath about Kavanaugh. There are questions about his possible alcoholism and about his judicial temperament. All these questions demand answers.
Senators representing less than half the country have just rammed through the lifetime appointment of a justice who will potentially be the deciding vote on major questions like: Can the president be subpoenaed to testify in a legal case, specifically the Russia probe being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller? Do women have a constitutional right to abortion? Is affirmative action constitutional?
On numerous occasions during his testimony at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh gave misleading answers at best and perjured himself at worst.
The FBI needs to do the type of investigation of Kavanaugh that is worthy of a lifetime appointment. The American people deserve answers.
Kavanaugh’s rage-filled rant at his confirmation hearing last week lifted the veil on the partisan nature of the Supreme Court and confirmed what many believe to already be true: our system of government is broken.
Conspiracy theories about the Clintons may be acceptable for talking heads on TV news show and politicians, but there should be no question that remarks like the ones that Kavanaugh made at his confirmation hearing should be entirely off-limits for a potential Supreme Court justice.
Kavanaugh testified like an overtly political candidate – not like a nonpartisan justice. If the American people perceive the high court to be made up of Republican and Democratic justices the authority of the court will be severely damaged and its decisions will not command the respect of millions of Americans.
At some point, an issue will come before the Supreme Court that is not only highly divisive but touches on the very framework of our democracy. Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, all Americans should have faith that the decisions being made by the high court are based on evidence, the Constitution and our nation’s laws – not political factors.
While Republicans have won the confirmation battle to seat Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, they have destroyed any semblance of impartiality on the court.
Every decision by Kavanaugh will be tainted. Every opinion will be viewed as hyper-partisan. Every ruling that goes against a Democratic-aligned issue will be considered to be illegitimate.
But Kavanaugh is not the only Republican to blame for the partisan nature of the confirmation process. President's Trump’s blatantly partisan efforts to create a pro-Republican court and his insulting attacks on Kavanaugh’s accusers – combined with the decision by Senate Republicans to rush through a confirmation vote with so many questions remaining about Kavanaugh – have left on stain on the new associate justice that will not disappear unless a new FBI investigation answers those questions.
Should the enthusiasm displayed by Democratic voters over the last 18 months, translate into a Democratic majority in the House and possibly the Senate, you can be assured that there will be hell to pay for Justice Kavanaugh – as there should be.
Democrats owe it to our country to be impartial and thorough and go wherever the facts take them – no more, no less. If the evidence leads to Kavanaugh's impeachment, so be it, but finding the truth must be our top priority.
As much as I dislike Brett Kavanaugh and everything he represents, I dislike the permanent damage being done to our institutions even more. The legitimacy of America’s highest court is under assault – we must do everything in our power to restore it.
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