Brett Kavanaugh Dances Around Views On Abortion

on September 5, 2018 in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 05: Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh answers questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the second day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill Sept... WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 05: Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh answers questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the second day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill September 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the vacancy on the court left by retiring Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh walked a careful line as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) questioned him about his views on Supreme Court decisions establishing abortion rights.

As a judge, it is an important precedent of the Supreme Court,” he said, while discussing both Roe v. Wade, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed the constitutional right to an abortion.

Feinstein had asked him whether he viewed Roe as “settled law.”

He called it “settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court entitled to respect under stare decisis.”

Kavanaugh started going over the details of the Casey decision, until Feinstein attempted to return to his own views and how they might have changed since he worked in the George W. Bush administration.

“I understand how passionate and how deeply people feel about this issue,” Kavanaugh says on abortion rights. “I don’t live in a bubble.”

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