Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley gave Judge Brett Kavanaugh a chance to offer a pre-buttal to any concerns raised by Democrats that he won’t be an independent check on President Trump, who nominated him to the Supreme Court.
“No one is above the law in our constitutional system,” Kavanaugh said.
He said judges should make decisions based on the law, “not based on policy, not based on political pressure, not based on the identity of the political parties.”
To stress this point, Kavanaugh brought up a number of Supreme Court cases where the justices ruled against the presidents who appointed them, including USA v. Nixon, where the court ordered President Nixon to hand over subpoenaed materials.
Kavanaugh previously questioned the decision in a 1999 interview.
Kavanaugh also cited his own decision in 2012 in favor of a defendant who was involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks and was convicted under the George W. Bush administration, where Kavanaugh had previously worked.
“You’ll never have a nominee who has ruled for a more unpopular defendant,” he said.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, déjà vu.
H/T Second City
So we have an up-is-down kind of day ahead of us.
Nope. This is a president who loudly demands that he be above the law because he commits crimes a lot. Then you have a nominee with a whole chorus of warning bells going off. This de rigueur happy talk isn’t going to be enough.
He also demands, publicly and privately, succor, protection and one-sided devotion from everyone he has any leverage with.
It’s been refreshing to have John Roberts just calling balls and strikes for the past dozen years. We can count on the same kind of impartiality from Kavanaugh!