Full article in the link.
Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, explained
He’s a veteran of every conservative fight from the Clinton impeachment to the fight against Obamacare.
By Dylan Matthews@dylanmattdylan@vox.com Updated Jul 9, 2018, 9:28pm EDTSHARE
Chris Maddaloni/Roll Call/Getty Images/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60314289/GettyImages_99297093.0.jpg)
Donald Trump on Monday night chose Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh, 53, is a candidate straight out of Supreme Court central casting: He went to Yale and Yale Law (every current justice either attended that school or Harvard Law); he clerked for two federal appellate judges, including the well-known Alex Kozinski; worked in the solicitor general’s office in the George H.W. Bush administration; and then clerked for Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
Since 2006, he has sat on the DC Circuit, which also produced current justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It’s not for nothing that the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo, who has been Trump’s most important adviser on court nominations, singled Kavanaugh out as one of the most promising contenders for Kennedy’s seat.
His résumé is the one every ambitious college Republican hoping to be on the Supreme Court one day dreams of building. Sen. dikk Durbin (D-IL) once called him the “Forrest Gump of Republican politics.” But the prospect of his nomination sparked substantial debate among movement conservatives even before Trump picked him. Kavanaugh has his defenders, but concern has been growing in right-wing legal circles about his decisions in religious liberty cases and on Obamacare. Even cautiously pro-Kavanaugh writers are skeptical he’s the best possible pick. “There’s a difference between a home run and a grand slam,” as National Review’s David French put it.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has expressed concern that Kavanaugh’s long track record will produce too many documents for the Senate to pore over, elongating the confirmation process and making it hard to get Kavanaugh on the court quickly.
Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, explained
