Our recent progress in areas such as health care, women’s rights, affirmative action, the environment and many others are at risk if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. As the hearings proceed and U.S. senators probe the president’s nominee to our nation’s highest court, it is important to remember that only a fraction of the documents detailing Kavanaugh’s time with the White House under former President George W. Bush have been released. Federal democratic senators have lamented how limited the information has been to limit the exposure of his record, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who noted that only about 4 percent of the documents from that time were released. This prevents the senators and public from having valuable insight into how Kavanaugh would rule as a Supreme Court Justice, but we do have other information and analysis to help us understand the threat Kavanaugh poses to our nation.
Here are some examples from advocacy groups who have analyzed Kavanaugh’s rulings and writings on myriad issues:
From the ACLU:
“Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial writings show him to be a consistently conservative jurist: favoring executive power, allowing sweeping surveillance of Americans’ phone records, and allowing random drug testing of federal employees,” said David Cole, ACLU national legal director.
The ACLU also found that Kavanaugh may not see the value in diverse student bodies as a justification for affirmative action, among other issues in a 35-page report.
From The Leadership Conference, the nation’s premier civil and human rights coalition:
Brett Kavanaugh is committed to gutting and overturning Roe v. Wade and believes the Affordable Care Act should have been declared unconstitutional. He has made it perfectly clear that he believes the president is above the law. And if he is confirmed, his opinions will roll back the civil and human rights of hundreds of millions of Americans for generations to come. Our civil and human rights hang in the balance with this Supreme Court nomination.
Senator Kamala Harris asks if Judge Kavanaugh has discussed Mueller Investigation with anyone at Kasowitz Benson Torres law firm. Kavanaugh: “I would like to know the person you’re thinking of.” Sen. Harris: “I think you’re thinking of someone and you don’t want to tell us.”
From Planned Parenthood:
“We oppose the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and call on the Senate to do the same. There’s no way to sugarcoat it: with this nomination, the constitutional right to access safe, legal abortion in this country is on the line … Generations of women, especially women of color, will be affected. And generations of people have grown up only knowing a country where they have the right to access safe, legal abortion. We cannot allow our children and grandchildren to have fewer rights than we do today.”
From the AFL-CIO:
“The current Supreme Court has shown that it will side with greedy corporations over working people whenever given the chance, and this nominee will only skew that further. Recent decisions by the court, often the result of 5-4 votes, have a dramatic impact on the lives of working families and reinforce the importance of the selection of a new justice. We simply cannot have another lifetime-appointed justice unleashed who, as Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, acts as a “black-robed ruler overriding citizens’ choices.” The AFL-CIO examined Kavanaugh’s position based on labor decisions to come up with its opinion.
From the Environmental Defense Fund:
“On these critical principles, Judge Kavanaugh’s rulings have not shown respect for such precedents, or the delegation of responsibility to EPA required to protect the environment and public health. He has ruled to overturn EPA protections anchored in statute even when their public health benefits clearly outweigh their costs.”