Needless to say, the cultural warriors have leapt to their artillery now that Judge Kavanaugh has been nominated to SCOTUS by President Trump. My previous thoughts and knowledge on the judge, slim as they may be, were written up here. Steve Benen didn’t much care for his acceptance speech:
There’s simply no way Kavanaugh can speak to this with any authority. For him to state such a claim as fact is hard to take seriously.
I imagine the White House’s allies will say the judge was simply being polite, saying nice things about the president who, moments earlier, announced plans to reward him with one of the nine most important jobs in American jurisprudence, and there’s no need to take it too seriously.
Perhaps. Alternatively, when a Supreme Court nominee uses pro-Trump hyperbole better left to the president’s press secretary, he’s signaling a deference that should give us pause.
Rather than agree – or disagree – with Steve, I’d rather speak to Judge Kavanaugh’s potential future on the Court. Given his previous comments that a sitting President should not be bothered by such minutiae as lawsuits, it’s reasonable to assume, as many commentators have been quick to point out, that he was selected for his inclination to protect Trump’s backside in case Special Counsel Mueller comes out with legal action against the President – or, for that matter, if Congress impeaches the President.
So my thought is this – will Judge (perhaps soon to be Justice) Kavanaugh have the balls to recuse himself if such a lawsuit ends up before SCOTUS? Having substantively discussed how he’d decide such a lawsuit, he’s effectively compromised himself.
