It’s no shocker that I’m not a fan of Brett Kavanaugh. As someone who is a fan of general reason as well as human rights, Kavanaugh’s judicial history is something that should strike fear into the heart of every person who has even the slightest regard for the well-being of residents of the United States. He has shown, time and time again, that he has no regard for reproductive rights, nor the rights of minority groups.
When Donald Trump was elected, he became indebted to the religious right for their support. Because of this, Trump has been on a kick of nominating and appointing people who identify with the religious right; people like anti-abortion activist E. Scott Lloyd, former executive chairman of the far-right news syndicate Breitbart Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka (who had ties to far-right, anti-Semitic groups in Hungary), Stephen Miller, who has been responsible for anti-immigration policies seen as a “gateway to tyranny” in the eyes of his own uncle, etc., represent the views of the Trump administration, and Brett Kavanaugh is the newest addition to this list.
Most of Kavanaugh’s views are wildly unpopular across the country. He praised Chief Justice Rehnquist’s dissenting opinions regarding the ruling of Roe v. Wade, while a majority of Americans have expressed the desire for Roe v. Wade to remain standing. Kavanaugh’s ruling against a 17-year-old from Central America seeking an abortion in Garza v. Hargan shows that he would likely be serving interests that oppose the precedent set by Roe.
If that doesn’t worry you, then just look at his ruling in cases like Bluman v. FEC or Agri Processor Co. v. NLRB. In these cases, Kavanaugh has shown that he doesn’t believe voter ID laws are racially motivation, and that he supports the protection of corporations from liability regarding collective bargaining rights.
This is a man that supports the rights of corporations and the social elite over the rights of people of color, workers or immigrants. By coding the rights of the corporate elite and the 1% as the rights of the “everyday American”, Kavanaugh proves that he will only continue to uphold the systems of oppression and bigotry in the United States.
What is even more concerning, however, is the attempt being made to jam Brett Kavanaugh into the Supreme Court by the G.O.P. and the Trump administration, something that very closely resembles how Republicans passed the tax reforms last year, with G.O.P. leaders withholding vital information that is supposed to be taken into consideration during deliberations. Once again, this will be something that is decided purely by partisanship, and unless two republican senators suddenly grow a conscience, it will likely be that Kavanaugh is confirmed. There seems to be a degree of secrecy and partisan actions being taken by Republican senators in order to guarantee Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Republicans have rationalized their forceful pushing of Kavanaugh’s nomination by claiming that Democrats have already made up their mind to oppose any Trump nominations, which is hilarious because if we go back to 2016, multiple Republican senators promised to oppose any of Hillary Clinton’s Supreme Court nominations. But that is beside the point. The American people deserve to know everything possible about the people that are being nominated to serve lifetime appointments on the highest court in the United States.
The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh and the Republican party have made a mockery of the ideas surrounding “advice and consent”, something that is supposed to be a careful and attentive process. This is to be expected, obviously, because the agenda of the right wing is known to be hugely unpopular, and the only reason they are able to get anything done is due to the slim majority they hold within the federal government. They hide it as much as possible through tactics such as rushed legislation and confirmations, because if too much of it comes to light, they know they will be voted out of office come November.