Senators Prepare for Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearing

Senators on Sunday released nearly 90,00 pages of documents on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh in advance of his confirmation hearing.

The documents, which detail Kavanaugh’s time in the Bush White House, were released just days after Republican leaders announced that Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing would begin on September 4th.

The deadline gives Democrats little time to search through the documents for anything they could use to block Kavanaugh’s path to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, on-the-ground resistance against Kavanaugh has dwindled as Democrats pour their energy into the upcoming midterms. 

The upcoming confirmation hearing will involve one-two days of testimony followed by discussions from supporters and detractors about whether to confirm Kavanaugh. After that, Kavanaugh will have one week to answer a list of written questions. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a final vote two weeks later. 

Democrats will then have a chance to stall Kavanaugh’s confirmation with a filibuster – but they won’t be able to block him unless they can win over at least one moderate Republican (this is unlikely). If all goes according to plan, Kavanaugh will be on the bench by October 1st. 

“He’ll get confirmed. It won’t be a landslide, but he’ll get confirmed,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). 

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Judge Kavanaugh, who has worked for the DC Circuit Court since 2006, was nominated by Trump in July to fill the seat vacated when Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement.

Kavanaugh is the first Supreme Court nominee to have worked in the White House after the advent of email – meaning there is a “record million-plus pages of legal opinions and emails from his career as a federal judge, White House lawyer, and assistant to the prosecutor who investigated President Bill Clinton,” notes USA Today. 

Roughly 103,000 pages of information on Kavanaugh have been made public, but Democrats insist they need to see everything before they can vote. 

“This is unprecedented and unfair to the American people,” argues Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL). “The American people deserve to know the true story the man seeking a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land.” 

Senators reviewed about 182,000 pages of information on Neil Gorsuch before confirming him to the Supreme Court last April.

Author’s Note: Justice Kennedy was a key swing voter serving with four Republicans and four Democrats.

Kavanaugh’s confirmation will be a huge victory for Trump and for the Republican Party, because it will shift the balance of the court to the right for years to come.