Kavanaugh could offer the decisive vote to uphold Trump's crusade against affirmative action
By James Hohmann
August 31 at 9:29 AM
THE BIG IDEA: In 1999, a conservative legal activist named Brett Kavanaugh said he believed it was “inevitable” that the Supreme Court, “within the next 10 to 20 years,” would conclude that “we are all one race in the eyes of the government.” Nineteen years later, as Kavanaugh prepares for his confirmation hearing next week to join the Supreme Court, the Trump administration filed a legal brief Thursday to support a pending lawsuit against Harvard University that could end affirmative action as we know it and perhaps even give Kavanaugh an opportunity to make his prophecy a reality.
Because Kavanaugh is the nominee to replace retired justice Anthony Kennedy — who offered the decisive vote in a 2016 case that saved affirmative action in college admissions — civil rights advocates are alarmed by evidence of Kavanaugh’s skepticism toward racially tailored policies intended to rectify centuries of injustice.
That was one factor that led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in formally opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation on Thursday, to describe him as “a grave threat to civil rights, racial justice and … marginalized communities.”
Senate Democrats last night also announced their witness list for next week’s hearing. The first speaker on the first panel will be Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He will speak about Kavanaugh’s record on affirmative action, civil rights and voting rights.
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