Kavanaugh will have to face another Senate confirmation in the house where Trump’s party holds slim majority.
US President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee for the US Supreme Court on Monday. A known conservative, Kavanaugh was a federal appeals court judge for 12 years. He has survived a tough Senate confirmation and also helped investigate former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
Kavanaugh will have to face another Senate confirmation in the house where Trump’s party holds slim majority. Kavanaugh would replace long-serving conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired at 81.
He is known for dissenting when his appeals court declined to reconsider its decision to uphold ‘net neutrality’ regulations implemented under Obama.
Before his appointment to US Supreme Court, he worked for Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Bill Clinton. When Bush nominated him to his current post in 2003, Kavanaugh had to face a long confirmation discussion in the House. Democrats thought him to be too partisan, but he was confirmed by the Senate three years later.
He studied at the Yale Law School and has received criticism in conservative circles due to his ties with Bush and for ruling aggressively on topical issues.
In 2011, when the court upheld a District of Columbia gun law banning semi-automatic rifles, Kavanaugh dissented. He said such guns are covered by the US Constitution’s Second Amendment, which protects one’s right to bear arms.
In October 2017, Kavanaugh was on a panel of judges that issued an order preventing a 17-year-old illegal immigrant from obtaining an abortion. She was detained in Texas by US authorities.
Kavanaugh has also taught at Harvard Law School. In 2009, he wrote an article regarding investigations and concluded that presidents should be free from distractions of civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions and investigations while in office.
