Leading Contender To Be Trump's Supreme Court Pick Faces Questions From Social Conservatives

[appalachiablue]

Source: Washington Post

An intensifying debate over Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, a front-runner in President Trump’s search for a Supreme Court nominee, gripped Republicans on Tuesday, with conservative critics highlighting past rulings and his links to GOP leaders while his allies — including inside the White House — forcefully defended him.

The sparring over Kavanaugh, one of four federal appeals court judges who met with the president Monday, underscored the challenges facing Trump as he aims to pick a successor to retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy by his own July 9 deadline. Even as Trump mulls a shortlist that has been carefully cultivated by influential Republican lawyers, frictions in the conservative legal community and on Capitol Hill threaten to disrupt the search process.

The political moment for Trump was fragile as a president devoted to his base weighed what a Kavanaugh selection could mean for him, unfolding amid a flurry of op-eds and phone calls praising the 53-year-old judge as well as a clamor from those who see him as out of step on health care and abortion, or too tied to George W. Bush’s White House.

“You hear the rumbling because if you’ve been part of the establishment for a long time, you’re suspect,” veteran conservative organizer Richard Viguerie said in an interview. “Kavanaugh carries that baggage.”...More..


Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/leading-contender-to-be-trump%e2%80%99s-supreme-court-pick-faces-questions-from-social-conservatives/ar-AAzxQQS?li=BBnbcA1

---

[still_one]

1. It is all bullshit. Unless there is a paper trail no SC justice nominee is going to give a direct

answer. They will say they will no comment or prejudge issues that may come before the court, and leave it at that

[Iliyah]

2. Like this means anything.

[H2O Man]

3. It is a game

to try to trick Democrats into thinking he is more acceptable than other candidates. He's not.

[dalton99a]

4. Precisely.

[not fooled]

5. Yep

kabuki, with very stupid and/or evil people.

[DonCoquixote]

6. we know this guy is picked

because he will hamstring any attempt by the SCVVOTUS to prosecute Trump, and that he will be the first to try and have any democrat that succeeds Trump perp-walked.

[mr_liberal]

7. Conservatives don't think he's conservative enough.

He's actually our best chance to get someone like Kennedy. I hope he can hang on and Trump picks him.

[Hoyt]

8. Don't know enough about him to know. But if he is like you say, we'll fail to recognize

it, gripe and rant, and end up with another Gorsuch or Thomas.

I do know that we won’t end up with someone we like, so we better hope for someone we can tolerate. After losing the election, that’s the best we can hope for.

[mr_liberal]

9. He clerked for Kennedy and libertarianish judge Alex Kozinski.

He wrote an opinion that suggests he may believe in the right to privacy at least for birth control. He's a mainstream republican. He wont be great but he may be the best we can hope for, out of who Trump is considering

What you describe happened with Harriet Miers. She was 60 and may have even been a centrist but she was nominated by Bush who at the time was the epitome of evil. The right attacked her and the left piled on. Her nomination was pulled and we ended up with Alito who may be even more conservative than Thomas.

[elleng]

10. Two Judges Exemplify the Choice Trump Faces in a Supreme Court Pick.

'One is a creature of Washington with two Yale degrees, a ticket-punching résumé that includes stints in the Justice Department, the Bush White House and a federal appeals court, where he has written some 300 opinions.

The other, a former law professor, has been a judge for less than a year but could become the first woman named to the Supreme Court by a Republican president since 1981 — thanks in large part to a memorable exchange with Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, over her religious beliefs.

The fight over who should replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court is far from over, and there are still a half-dozen plausible candidates in the mix. But the stark contrast between two of the leading contenders — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and Judge Amy Coney Barrett — reflects the division on the right between the conservative legal establishment, which is hostile to government regulation and the administrative state, and social conservatives, who are focused on issues like abortion and religious freedom.

Other candidates, notably Judges Raymond M. Kethledge and Amul R. Thapar, both of the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, have had cordial meetings with President Trump, and a White House spokesman said Mr. Trump interviewed three more possible choices on Tuesday.

ut according to a person close to the president, Judge Kavanaugh, who has served 12 years on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is the leading candidate in the president’s mind, followed by Judge Barrett and then Judge Kethledge. Mr. Trump believes Judge Kavanaugh has been on the bench long enough to give the president a sense of where he stands on various issues and that Judge Barrett is fairly young and could use more judicial experience. The administration might want to keep her in reserve should Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85, leave the court.

The person close to the president cautioned that Mr. Trump could still change his mind between now and Monday, when the White House has said the choice will be announced.

That will be the end of an unusually raw rift in the conservative legal movement, one in which Judges Kavanaugh and Barrett have come to exemplify the clashing values and priorities of the Trump administration and its supporters.

“A lot of social conservatives have coalesced around Amy,” said Jonathan H. Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, who said he knows and admires both judges. “The business folks and the D.C. folks tend to pull for Brett a little more.”

While Judge Kavanaugh, 53, has long been thought to be the front-runner and a favorite of Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, he has in recent days faced mounting opposition from social conservatives for aspects of his résumé.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/us/politics/trump-supreme-court-judges-kavanaugh-barrett.html?

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

11. Gee, Kavanaugh is at the top of the list.

Who could imagine that Trump would find attractive someone who wrote a law review article which said a president couldn't be investigated, indicted or even sued for civil cases while in office. I'll bet he even thinks a president can pardon himself. Now, there's just the loyalty pledge, and he's in.

[ewagner]

12. I suspect this is "inoculation"

The Repubs want us to think this guy is really "moderate" and the conservative wing of the party is upset at the prospect of him being appointedg to SCOTUS...

I am jaded enough to think that Viguerie* is leading a disinformation campaign to peal off some Democratic votes in the Senate. I don't trust these dudes as far as I could throw them

*Viguerie...IS THE ESTABLISHMENT!! He was one of those who helped develop the mailing/donation lists after the Republican defeats in the 70s...he's one of the hard-core right wing that was in the Goldwater camp...he's treacherous.

[andytheteacher]

13. Kavanaugh would be like Rehnquist

Kavanaugh is not in the mold of Thomas, Scalia, Alito.

He's more in the mold of Roberts or Rehnquist.

But there is zero chance he is a Kennedy never mind Souter, the paper trail on him is actually quite good.

I'm one of those people that believes elections have consequences and barring someone in the mold of Alita, Scalia, Thomas...I say we just lose this battle and fight another day. They screwed us on Garland, and if we had the Senate I'd say let's do it back..but we don't.

The very worst thing we can do if they appoint Barrett is criticize her religion it's really the only thing we could do to screw up this mid term election. I fear Trump will embrace the full culture war and pick her. If he does, I think we vote No and say she's too EXTREME and never ever ever bring up her religion.