Cantwell makes it official, will oppose confirming Kavanaugh
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., made it official on Thursday that she will vote against confirming appellate judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
While her seatmate Sen. Patty Murray unleashed a feminist anti-Kavanaugh manifesto within minutes of when President Trump made the nomination, Cantwell has been critical but waited and listened.
She had enough on a day when Kavanaugh was caught in a contradiction.
The Supreme Court nominee reportedly assured Sen. Susan Collins, a pro-choice Maine Republican, that the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was "settled law." The decision made abortion legal in America, and was later upheld in the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services case.
But in a memo revealed Thursday, written when Kavanaugh worked in the Bush White House, the nominee said Roe was not settled law, and that three Supreme Court justices were ready to vote to throw it out.
"While he now claims Roe is settled law, his previous assertions while he worked in the Bush White House raise serious questions," Cantwell said in a statement.
The senator also questioned whether Kavanaugh is ready or able to rein in President Trump or any president who goes outside the law.
"The U.S. Supreme Court serves as an important check on presidential power," said Cantwell. "In his (Senate Judiciary Committee) hearing, Judge Kavanaugh refused to say whether a president could pardon himself or respond to a subpoena.
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