Tag: Brett Kavanaugh

WATCH SENATE DEMOCRATS POUNCE: ‘We Cannot Possibly Move Forward’

Senate Democrats are fired up and fighting for Americans in Republicans’ historically secretive hearing to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Senate Republicans are holding his confirmation hearing today…

  1. In spite of Republicans releasing 42,000 records last night that could not possibly be reviewed before this morning’s hearing;
  2. Despite Republicans refusing to release 93% of Kavanaugh’s White House records;
  3. And in the face of the Trump administration’s unprecedented decision to withhold 100,000 pages of documents under the guise of executive privilege.

Senate Democrats have had enough. Take a look: Continue reading “WATCH SENATE DEMOCRATS POUNCE: ‘We Cannot Possibly Move Forward’”

What’s at Stake for Women if Kavanaugh Is Confirmed to Supreme Court

The following article by Jamila Taylor and Andrew Satter was posted on the Center for American Progress website August 22, 2018:

President Donald Trump has said he would only consider a Supreme Court justice who would overturn Roe v. Wade, and he appears to have his man in Brett Kavanaugh. These brave women are here to remind us that we don’t have to imagine a country without legal abortion; they already know the debilitating barriers that people face when trying to access abortion care and what life was like 50 years ago when many had no choice.

This video was produced in partnership with the Feminist Majority Foundation.

View the article here.

John Dean Among the Witnesses at Brett Kavanaugh Hearing

The following article by Niels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website August 30, 2018:

List is replete with law professors galore, as well as a couple solicitors general

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will be in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee next week for his confirmation hearing. Credit: Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call file photo

Senate Judiciary Democrats are calling John W. Dean, best known as Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, as one of their witnesses for the confirmation hearings of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee next week.

Dean might well be the headliner for the minority side, who have questions about nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s views about the limits of executive power.

The Supreme Court confirmation hearings begin Tuesday morning with opening statements and introductions from former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and prominent lawyer Lisa S. Blatt, as well as Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman.

New Scam Pre-Existing Conditions Bill Provides No Cover to Vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh

The following article by Colin Seeberger and Jake Faleschini was posted on the Center for American Progress website August 30, 2018:

Credit: Bill Clark, Getty

Next week, while President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, fields questions at his confirmation hearings, a judge in a North Texas federal district court will hear oral arguments in a landmark health care case on which the next Supreme Court justice could ultimately rule. The case, brought by 20 Republican attorneys general, challenges the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions and limitations on price gouging older Americans. Congressional Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the ACA’s individual mandate, opening the door for the lawsuit. In June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that President Trump personally instructed the U.S. Department of Justice not to defend the specific parts of the ACA against this new legal attack—a dramatic departure from precedent. Continue reading “New Scam Pre-Existing Conditions Bill Provides No Cover to Vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh”

Republicans Have Reviewed Very Little Of Kavanaugh’s Records

They Haven’t Seen Any Of His Staff Secretary Records

Senate Republicans are trying to rush through the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh by holding his hearing before the Senate is able to review the full subset of records that Senator Grassley has requested.

In fact, the Senate has reviewed less than half of the subset of records that Grassley requested, and Republicans still refuse to release any of the records from Kavanaugh’s time as White House staff secretary. What are Republicans trying to hide?

  • Senator Grassley said his staff has reviewed 430,000 pages of Kavanaugh’s records ahead of his hearing next week.
  • That is less than half of the more than 900,000 pages Senator Grassley requested. The rest won’t be made available before Kavanaugh’s hearing.
  • The few records that have been turned over were pre-screened by a Republican lawyer who used to work for Kavanaugh. The Senate will likely see zero records from the National Archives before Kavanaugh’s hearing.
  • Senate Republicans still refuse to release 560,000 documents from Kavanaugh’s time as White House staff secretary.

Raising The Stakes: Kavanaugh Believes Trump Is Above The Law. He Should Not Be Confirmed.

Yesterday, the stakes of Kavanaugh’s nomination were raised even higher after Michael Cohen alleged under oath Donald Trump was a co-conspirator in a crime meant to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. The Senate should not confirm a nominee that believes the president is above the law, and Senate Republicans should delay his confirmation hearing.

Kavanaugh refused to say that the president must comply with a subpoena or provide records in an investigation.

Senator Schumer: “And on the issue of executive power, Judge Kavanaugh would not say that the President must comply with a subpoena or provide records.” Continue reading “Raising The Stakes: Kavanaugh Believes Trump Is Above The Law. He Should Not Be Confirmed.”

Brett Kavanaugh memo proposed explicit questions for President Bill Clinton

The following article by Michael Kranish was posted on the Washington Post website August 20, 2018:

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh listens during a meeting with Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Capitol Hill on July 11. Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

A 1998 memo written by Brett Kavanaugh proposed a series of tough, sexually explicit questions for President Bill Clinton to answer about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, shedding new light on the Supreme Court nominee’s moralistic outlook and his view of presidential power.

Kavanaugh, as associate counsel in the office of independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, wrote in the memo that he was “strongly opposed” to giving Clinton any “break” and suggested 10 questions, including: “If Monica Lewinsky says that you inserted a cigar into her vagina while you were in the Oval Office area, would she be lying?”

The memo provides a contrast to the genial, soft-spoken nominee who chooses every word carefully as he makes the rounds of the Senate before his Sept. 4 hearing before the Judiciary Committee. It reveals a hardball tactician who argued forcefully that Starr had the right to press the president for answers, a view he later shifted, saying presidents are too busy to be subject to such investigations while in office.

View the complete article here.

Mainers Oppose Kavanaugh, Support Pre-Existing Condition Protections & Roe v. Wade

Today, Senator Collins will meet with Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Senator Collins’ constituents know that Brett Kavanaugh will be a threat to Americans’ health care and to women’s rights, and many of her constituents already oppose Senator Collins voting to confirm Kavanaugh. Will Senator Collins listen?

Mainers oppose Senator Collins voting to confirm Kavanaugh.

  • Nearly half of Senator Collins’ constituents think she should vote against Kavanaugh.
  • By a 16 point margin, Senator Collins’ constituents are less likely to vote for her if she votes to confirm Kavanaugh.

Continue reading “Mainers Oppose Kavanaugh, Support Pre-Existing Condition Protections & Roe v. Wade”

Kavanaugh Could Unlock Funding for Religious Education, School Voucher Advocates Say

The following article by Erica L. Green was posted on the New York Times website August 14, 2018:

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, in Washington in July. Over his decades-long legal career, Judge Kavanaugh has argued in favor of religious freedom in education. Credit: Erin Schaff for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, in a speech last year, gave a strong hint at his views on taxpayer support for religious schools when he praised his “first judicial hero,” Justice William Rehnquist, for determining that the strict wall between church and state “was wrong as a matter of law and history.”

Mr. Rehnquist’s legacy on religious issues was most profound in “ensuring that religious schools and religious institutions could participate as equals in society and in state benefits programs,” Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to succeed Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court, declared at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization.

Words like that from a Supreme Court nominee are breathing new life into the debate over public funding for sectarian education. Educators see him as crucial to answering a question left by Justice Kennedy after the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional for the state of Missouri to exclude a church-based preschool from competing for public funding to upgrade its playground: Can a church-school playground pave the way for taxpayer funding to flow to private and parochial schools for almost any purpose?

View the complete article here.

Kavanaugh Feared Looking ‘Silly’ on Flip-Flop on Presidential Records

The following article by Todd Ruger was posted on the Roll Call website August 13, 2018:

Boxes representing roughly 1 million pages of documents to be submitted to the committee on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Credit: Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call file photo

Long before the current Senate fight over access to presidential records as part of his Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh sent an email to his co-workers in the White House counsel’s office about a soon-to-be-published article on access to presidential records that “makes me look very silly.”

Kavanaugh let the office know that Washington Post columnist Al Kamen planned to write a blurb to highlight how he had switched legal positions — now that he was a lawyer in the George W. Bush administration — when it comes to how much power former presidents and their families had to block the release of presidential records.

“I apologize in advance,” Kavanaugh wrote in the email, one of about 88,000 pages of documents about his work in the White House released Sunday as part of the confirmation process. “I will be screaming into a pillow at staff meeting in the morning. Uggghhhhh.”

View the complete article here.