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What’s at Stake with the Kavanaugh Hearing

There’s too much at stake to allow Brett Kavanaugh to be confirmed to the highest court in the land.

Thankfully, Senate Democrats are fighting for Americans by challenging Republicans’ historically-secretive hearing to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Senate Democrats are proud to have interrupted Sen. Grassley’s charade of a confirmation process this morning.  Kavanaugh is being considered for a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land, and the American people deserve access to all his records.

What are Senate Republicans hiding about Brett Kavanaugh?

  • Republicans released 42,000 pages of records last night that could not possibly be reviewed before this morning’s hearing.
  • Republicans have refused to release 93% of Kavanaugh’s White House records.
  • The Trump administration made an unprecedented decision to withhold 100,000 pages of documents under the guise of executive privilege.

Ahead of Kavanaugh’s hearing today, a new poll showed that he is historically unpopular among Americans.

  • Kavanaugh’s approval remains underwater and “among the lowest support levels for a high court nominee in polling back to 1987.”
  • Only 38% of Americans say Kavanaugh should be confirmed.

The little we do know about Kavanaugh is disturbing and unacceptable. See below:

  • Kavanaugh’s past record shows that he would be a threat to Americans’ health care and women’s rights.
    • In his 2012 dissent on a ruling that upheld the ACA, Kavanaugh suggested that a future president could refuse to enforce the ACA even if it had been upheld by the courts.
    • Kavanaugh dissented from a ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the ACA’s birth control benefit.
    • Kavanaugh was part of a three-judge panel that temporarily blocked a migrant teenager in HHS custody from obtaining an abortion.
  • Trump himself promised his Supreme Court nominee would be committed to overturning Roe and undermining the ACA.
    • “It is. It is.” – Trump, on whether overturning Roe v. Wade would be a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees, 2015
    • “I will be appointing pro-life judges.” – Trump, 2016
    • “If we appoint strict constructionists to the Supreme Court as Donald Trump intends to do, I believe we’ll see Roe vs. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history.” – Pence, 2016
    • “If I win the presidency, my judicial appointments will do the right thing unlike Bush’s appointee John Roberts on Obamacare.” – Trump, 2015
  • Kavanaugh has expressed disturbing views of presidential power and would fail to be an independent check on Trump.
    • Kavanaugh said in 2013 that the president can ignore laws they think are unconstitutional and he defended the Bush administration’s use of signing statements.
    • Kavanaugh suggested the unanimous Supreme Court ruling requiring Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes was wrongly decided.

What You Can Do

We all need to keep on the pressure and call GOP Senators. If you have family and friends out of state in a state with a Republican Senator, click HERE to find their Republican senator. Then pass that information to your family and friends and tell them to make the call and tell their senators to vote no on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh.

 

Data and Research Manager: