President Trump on Monday nominated federal judge Brett M. Kavanaughto the Supreme Court, elevating a conservative stalwart with deep ties to the Republican establishment to succeed retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and triggering a partisan war over the court’s future.
“In keeping with President Reagan’s legacy, I do not ask about a nominee’s personal opinions,” Trump said in an announcement in the East Room of the White House. “What matters is not a judge’s political views but whether they can set aside those views to do what the law and the Constitution require. I am pleased to say that I have found, without doubt, such a person.”
The scene as Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court
+8
President Trump elevated a conservative stalwart with deep ties to the Republican establishment to possibly succeed retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, triggering a partisan war over the court’s future.
Kavanaugh — who was joined by his wife, two daughters and parents — told Trump he has “witnessed firsthand your appreciation for the vital role of the American judiciary.”
“No president has ever consulted more widely or talked with more people from more backgrounds to seek input about a Supreme Court nomination,” Kavanaugh said. “Mr. President, I am grateful to you, and I am humbled by your confidence in me.”
He described his judicial philosophy as “straightforward.”
“A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law,” Kavanaugh said. “A judge must interpret statutes as written. And a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.”
Kavanaugh’s remarks, which included a bevy of stories about his background and family, appeared designed to cast him as an ally of women in advance of a nomination battle expected to center in part on his views on abortion and contraception.
He spoke at length about his two “spirited” daughters, whose basketball teams he has coached for the past seven years. He credited his wife, Ashley, whom he met when they both worked for Bush, for being a source of strength in the White House after the Sept. 11 attacks. He noted a majority of his law clerks were women.
Kavanaugh said he was first exposed to law by his mother, who practiced her closing arguments at the dinner table as a prosecutor before becoming a trial judge.
“Her trademark line was, ‘Use your common sense. What rings true? What rings false?’ ” Kavanaugh recounted. “That’s good advice for a juror and for a son.”
Kavanaugh’s link to the Bush political dynasty gave Trump pause during the search process, and he peppered associates with questions about whether “my base” would embrace him. But ultimately, prodded by top advisers and veteran Republicans, Trump decided Kavanaugh’s lengthy conservative judicial record made up for any lingering concerns about how some of his core supporters would view the pick, White House officials said.
Debates over Kavanaugh’s career paper trail, from the Bush White House to investigating President Bill Clinton under independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, in addition to his extensive legal writings, are expected to dominate his hearings, according to Republican and Democratic aides in the Senate preparing for those sessions.
Republican leaders firmly believe Kavanaugh could be instrumental in pitching the ideological makeup of the court to the right and leaving a conservative imprint on the law for a generation. They also see the coming confirmation fight as a chance to galvanize their voters ahead of this year’s midterm elections, where the GOP’s 51-seat Senate majority is at risk.
“I will lift heaven and Earth to see that he is confirmed,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said.
Kennedy, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, had long served as the pivotal swing vote on the court.
Democrats are preparing for what they hope will be a prolonged showdown on Capitol Hill — determined to rally in defense of Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights decision; LGBTQ rights; and same-sex marriage — all areas of the law they fear could be ruptured by the court.
“I will oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything I have,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.
Kavanaugh was one of four federal judges who emerged as Trump’s finalists after interviews early last week. Amy Coney Barrett, Thomas M. Hardiman and Raymond M. Kethledge were also vetted by the White House and considered by Trump in recent days.
Each of them had certain blocs of Trump’s circle or the Republican Party serving as their advocates.
Kavanaugh was boosted by the Bush network and legal conservatives; Barrett was touted by social conservatives; Hardiman was recommended by the president’s sister and sometimes-confidante, retired federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry.
The conservative American Family Association, which had been urging Trump to appoint Barrett, was one of few groups on the right to denounce his pick.
“Judge Kavanaugh’s reasoning on religious liberty, Obamacare and issues concerning life have proven to be of major concern,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon in a statement that asked Trump to rethink the decision.
Kavanaugh impressed Trump with his polished presentation, Ivy League credentials and the assurance from confidants inside and outside the White House that Kavanaugh’s legal writings were proof he would not drift to the left over the years, an anxiety on the right during court openings shared not only by the president but by many GOP leaders. For Trump, Kavanaugh was someone in the Gorsuch mold, White House officials said, and the president was keen to have his second court pick garner a similar wave of praise from Republicans.
Trump and Kavanaugh kept in touch over the weekend, according to one person briefed on those exchanges.
Trump, who has relished the spectacle of secrets being revealed and shortlists being winnowed since his days hosting NBC’s “The Apprentice,” entered the camera-lined East Room at the White House on Monday with aplomb, like the finales of his former television program, with the moment staged to be as much about his role as the decider in chief as about a seat on the high court.
And Trump, who confides daily in a far-flung network of advisers and associates, kept his decision under wraps until hours before the announcement, even as he made calls Monday morning and spent the weekend at his New Jersey golf club huddling with friends such as Fox News host Sean Hannity.
When asked about his choice Sunday, Trump was upbeat in response but deliberately vague.
“It’s still — let’s say it’s the four people. But they’re excellent. Every one. You can’t go wrong,” Trump said.
Monday’s scene, set among white columns and flags, was a rare instance of a norm-shredding president — who has repeatedly turned to raucous arena rallies and fiery tweets as the bastions of his presidency — embracing the traditional trappings of the office to elevate a defining decision, much as he did last year when he nominated Gorsuch.
The White House announced earlier Monday that former senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), 76, who served on the Senate Judiciary Committee and is close to Senate leaders, had agreed to serve as the “sherpa” for the nominee. That guiding presence — an adviser who works closely with the White House and introduces the nominee to senators, but is not a federal employee — is usually a seasoned party figure. Kyl is a lobbyist in the Washington headquarters of Covington & Burling.
Kavanaugh faces many hurdles: an intense media and political spotlight, and a divided Senate where Republicans hold just 51 seats. Senate Democrats running for reelection in states won by Trump are also facing thorny political dynamics — support the nominee and appeal to Trump’s voters, or oppose and rally their own party? Moderate Republicans, meanwhile, are on edge about how the nominee will respond to questions about social issues such as abortion.
The White House on Monday invited several key lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, to the announcement. One of them was Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who declined to attend the event.
“I’ll get a better sense watching,” she told reporters.
Senate Democrats such as Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Doug Jones (Ala.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.) were also invited but declined to attend.
“While I appreciate the invitation from the White House to attend this evening’s announcement, I declined so that I can meet first with the nominee in a setting where we can discuss his or her experience and perspectives,” Donnelly said in a statement.
Those red-state Democrats will be under pressure from conservative groups to get behind Trump’s nominee.
The Judicial Crisis Network, which launched an ad blitz in the wake of Kennedy’s retirement last month, announced Monday it is embarking on a week-long, $1.4 million ad campaign touting the nominee’s personal story. The new round of ads will run nationally and will also target four states — Alabama, Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia.
Kennedy’s role at the center of a court equally balanced between more predictable conservatives and more consistent liberals made him the most essential member of the modern Supreme Court. His replacement by a former clerk has been something he has mused about — his proteges are strewn throughout the federal judiciary — even if they are more conservative than he is.
Kennedy cast the deciding vote that found a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry. He determined how far government may go to intrude on a woman’s right to an abortion and how and when it is appropriate for government to exercise affirmative action. His decisions shielded juveniles and the intellectually disabled from the death penalty. He found that those seized in the fight against terrorism had rights in U.S. courts.
His successor will probably not share those views, although it is unclear if and how quickly the court might move to change those decisions.
But an apt comparison might be 2006, when Samuel A. Alito Jr. replaced another justice who had occupied the center of the court, Sandra Day O’Connor. Both were chosen by Republican presidents, but Alito moved the court to the right on issues such as campaign finance restrictions and affirmative action.
Kavanaugh has served on the federal bench for 12 years. Before becoming a judge, he was a fast-rising Republican lawyer who first gained notice decades ago when he helped to investigate Clinton while serving under independent counsel Starr.
Kavanaugh has since argued presidents should not be distracted by civil lawsuits, criminal investigations, or even questions from a prosecutor or defense lawyer while in office.
A Yale Law School graduate, Kavanaugh was plunged into national politics when he was tasked in 1994 with investigating the death of Clinton’s deputy counsel, Vincent Foster, and later with laying out the grounds for impeaching Clinton in the wake of the president’s affair with a White House intern.
Bush nominated Kavanaugh to the appeals court in 2003, but Democrats held up his confirmation for three years because of his work in the Bush White House and on the Starr report. He was confirmed in 2006 by a vote of 57 to 36.
On the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh has been a consistent conservative with rulings that often advance executive power and restrain the government bureaucracy. In a ruling later reversed by his colleagues, Kavanaugh declared unconstitutional the structure of a consumer watchdog agency, finding it gives too much executive control to a “single unaccountable, unchecked director.” In a Second Amendment case, Kavanaugh said he would have struck down D.C.’s regulations banning certain semiautomatic long guns.
Though he is considered to the right of Kennedy, a recent opinion on abortion has prompted criticism from some conservatives. Last fall, Kavanaugh ruled against an immigrant teenager in federal custody who sought to immediately terminate her pregnancy — but he did not go as far as another D.C. Circuit judge who said the teen had no constitutional right to an elective abortion.
Kavanaugh grew up in Bethesda and attended Georgetown Preparatory School, the same Jesuit high school as Gorsuch. He is an observant Catholic, regularly attending church at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Northwest Washington with his wife and two daughters. He serves meals at a local Catholic Charities program.
The selection of Kavanaugh underscored the influence traditional Republicans have maintained in Trump’s judicial nominations even as they struggle in the administration and on Capitol Hill to drive debates on trade and other policies.
Going back to his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has entrusted White House counsel Donald McGahn, a low-key conservative who served as the campaign’s lawyer, and outside groups such as the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation to cull his list of prospects for the federal bench.
While the relationship between McGahn and Trump has routinely been strained over the past year because of the special counsel probe into Russia’s election interference and possible obstruction of justice by the president, Trump has nevertheless continued to rely heavily on McGahn and Federalist Society Executive Vice President Leonard Leo, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
McGahn advised Trump to pick Gorsuch, then a Colorado appeals court judge, to fill the previous Supreme Court opening. McGahn has also shepherded the administration’s focus on transforming the lower federal courts. Trump has seen more than 35 of his nominees confirmed, more than doubling the total for President Barack Obama at the same point in his presidency.
Staunch support for Kavanaugh from McGahn and Leo was crucial during the close of the search. As Trump deliberated, they spoke with him by phone and talked up Kavanaugh’s record as rock-solid evidence of his conservatism, now and in the years ahead, according to two people involved in the process.
McGahn was also positive about Kavanaugh in recent exchanges with key Republican senators and their advisers, in particular those, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who have questioned Kavanaugh’s conservatism based on various rulings he has made on health care and abortion, the people said.
Still, McGahn, Leo and other admirers of Kavanaugh were careful throughout their discussions with Trump to avoid tilting the president in that direction, knowing from their past deliberations Trump is susceptible to taking a contrarian view if he feels he is being pushed too hard toward a position that is encouraged by many Republican leaders, the people added.
McConnell did not rally around Kavanaugh in his conversations with Trump. In a Friday phone call, the GOP Senate leader instead noted Hardiman or Kethledge could be easier to confirm in the Senate, according to two Republicans briefed on the call who were not authorized to speak publicly and so spoke on the condition of anonymity.
McConnell observed that those two candidates appeared to lack the political charge that has infused the Supreme Court candidacies of Kavanaugh and Barrett, with scrutiny surrounding Kavanaugh’s records from his rapid ascent, as well as Barrett’s social views, the Republicans said.
Michael Kranish, Carol D. Leonnig, Ann E. Marimow, Elise Viebeck and David Weigel contributed to this report.
