Tag: Donald B. Verrilli Jr.

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh are over. We learned very little about the nominee that we did not know before. We know that he served for 12 years with distinction on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and is highly regarded by appellate lawyers across the political spectrum. On the first day of the hearings, he was introduced by Lisa Blatt, a former clerk of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and self-described liberal, feminist lawyer who has argued 35 cases before the Supreme Court — more than any other woman. The opposition to Kavanaugh is actually not about him, but about the man who nominated him, Donald Trump. The notion that any Trump nominee is illegitimate because he would shield Trump from hypothetical future subpoenas or prosecutions is belied by history. Kavanaugh has no closer relationship to Trump that those appointees did to the presidents who appointed them. Well, Kavanaugh was probably right. Kavanaugh has never suggested that current procedures for investigating the president are unlawful. If Kavanaugh is unacceptable as a justice to liberals and Democrats, no Republican nominee would pass muster.