Committee Vote on Kavanaugh Disappoints; Nominee Stonewalls at Hearing
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 5/15/2006
Would Kavanaugh be an impartial judge?This seemed to be the underlining issue over Bush's most controversial judicial selection during hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee May 9. In his second hearing before the committee, Brett M. Kavanaugh, a former White House employee who was renominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in February, appeared unwilling to answer any of the senators' questions.
A party-line committee vote on May 11 turns his nomination to the DC Circuit to the full Senate, despite the concern that the second hearing afforded no one any more insight into Kavanaugh's qualifications.
"His nomination is an embarrassment. He has no judicial experience, a spotty courtroom record, and an ABA rating that was actually downgraded," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, after the committee vote. "Do we really want someone like him sitting on the DC Circuit?"
Civil rights groups and Senate Democrats had expressed concerns over Kavanaugh's relative youth, scarce litigation experience and time on the bench, and recent work at the White House. Kavanaugh has less legal experience than 21 of the 22 judges who have been appointed to the D.C. Circuit since the Nixon era, according to Ralph G. Neas, president of People For the American Way.
Senate Democrats were hoping to get precise answers from Kavanaugh in the second hearing regarding his involvement with the most controversial policies of the Bush administration, including illegal wiretapping of American citizens, torture practices in Guantanamo Bay, and judicial nominees.
However, the answers Kavanaugh provided were considered by Senators to be largely evasive.
Although he said that judicial independence is the "crown jewel of our constitutional democracy", he declined to answer a number of questions regarding his personal views on the administration's controversial policies. "I think it is not appropriate for me to answer," he repeatedly told Sen. Charles Schumer, D. N.Y.
Sen. Schumer said that "his record feeds an impression of partisanship that is not adequate to a lifetime position as a neutral judge".
When Sen. Schumer asked about his involvement in the selection process for federal judges as associate White House counsel, Kavanaugh suggested that such questions were "inappropriate." He said that he ranked the nominees but did not oppose them.
At the end of a long series of questions from Sen. Schumer, Kavanaugh admitted that judicial philosophy plays a role in the selection process as "the President made it clear that he would not appoint judges who do not share an appropriate judicial philosophy."
Given his lack of answers, Democratic Senators questioned how partisan Kavanaugh would be on the bench.
When Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D. Calif., asked him if he would "recuse yourself from any judgment about this administration," Kavanaugh said that he would take recusal issues seriously.
