Photo courtesy of the National Review.
Summary: President Trump’s pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy has expressed consistently conservative ideals throughout his career.
On Monday, President Donald Trump announced that he had chosen Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is set to retire at the end of the month.
“In keeping with President Reagan’s legacy, I do not ask about a nominee’s personal opinions,” Trump said in his announcement. “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.”
Kavanaugh, 53, must be confirmed by the Senate before being sworn in, and based on public reaction to Trump’s decision, the current US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit judge is popular with conservatives but condemned by liberals.
Kavanaugh once clerked with Justice Kennedy, and the Yale Law School graduate was White House Staff Secretary for President George W. Bush. While an attorney for Ken Starr, he recommended the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
On Tuesday, CNN listed Kavanaugh’s positions on key issues, including abortion and religious liberty.
ABORTION
President Trump had made it clear that he wanted a conservative and not a moderate justice, and Trump’s hardline stance on abortion had liberals worried that Roe v. Wade could be overturned. Kavanaugh has never expressed opposition to the case, according to CNN, but he came under fire last October for writing a dissent in the case of an undocumented immigrant who wanted to leave a detention center in order to receive an abortion. The majority ruled that the pregnant teen was entitled to one, but Kavanaugh disagreed.
“The government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion,” Kavanaugh wrote. He also stated the majority was mistaken in giving unlawful immigrant minors the right to obtain an “abortion on demand.”
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Kavanaugh showed sympathy towards the religious in the case Priests for Life v. HHS. A religious group opposed the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act, and in his dissent, Kavanaugh referenced the Supreme Court case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, stating that the Obamacare mandate burdened religious organizations’ exercise of religion.
SECOND AMENDMENT
Kavanaugh dissented in a case upholding a ban on semiautomatic rifles in the District of Columbia. He said that the Supreme Court had already declared that semi-automatic handguns were constitutionally protected.
“It follows from Heller’s protection of semi-automatic handguns that semi-automatic rifles are also constitutionally protected and that DC’s ban on them is unconstitutional,” Kavanaugh wrote.
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