A note to Judge Brett Kavanaugh: I have a suggestion on how you can make things difficult for the Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during your confirmation hearing. All you need to do is respond the same way Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg responded to a certain question in her confirmation hearing in 1993.
According to The New York Times, Judge Ginsberg responded to several questioners, “Asking her to signal how she might vote on an issue that was certain to come before a court.”
She responded, "This is something you must never ask a judge to do."
The idea that candidates for judicial positions should reveal their vote in advance in order to get approved is just plain unacceptable. Any judge who offers an opinion on an issue before he or she sees the facts should never be confirmed.
On a recent case concerning the Travel Ban Executive Order issued by President Trump, the Supreme Court decision was 5 to 4 in favor of the ban. Some felt that the court should have looked at what candidate Trump said about restricting immigration as a candidate. The court was asked to review the Executive Order content, not what Trump said while a candidate. Justices have to deal with the facts presented in front of them, not what was said before, so Justice Ginsberg was correct. Asking for an opinion before the Justices have been presented with the facts is not ethical. What is good for the goose has to be good for the gander as well. If it was okay for Ginsberg, then it has to be okay for Judge Kavanaugh.
As of now, it appears that Chairman Charles Grassley may well do the prospective jurist a favor by asking him the Ginsberg question. Based on protocol, Senator Diane Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member will then follow and her first question of Judge Kavanaugh, I expect, will be to ask him, “Are you in favor of repeal of Roe vs. Wade?” How he answers this question will set the tone for all the other Democrats, who will then ask Judge Kavanaugh about repealing Obama Care, legal and illegal immigration, separation of families, impeachment, and a myriad of many other issues that might come before him if he is confirmed.
All of these prospective questions and more are designed to get Judge Kavanaugh to disclose his intentions as to how he will vote on issues important to the Left. I think the remaining Republican members should start their questioning sessions with this: “Judge Kavanaugh, should a candidate for the high court disclose their position on cases that have not been presented to the court?”
Justice Ginsberg and other judges who were candidates for the high court have consistently stated that they do not believe judges would be doing their constitutional duty by expressing an opinion, without being presented the facts of the case.
If I’m right that Judge Kavanaugh can effectively shut down the Left with a single statement and stick to his guns, then he will be confirmed. I wrote some time ago that fighting Kavanaugh is the wrong battle for the Democrats. The Left’s attack on this candidate will waste all their ammunition and leave them without any credibility to attack the next Justice who retires.
The next appointment by President Trump may well solidify the court for the next 30 to 40 years. I think Ginsberg will retire after the 2018-19 session. If she is replaced with a conservative, then I expect Clarence Thomas will retire, once she has been replaced. Thomas will wait because he knows that should Ginsberg retire and be replaced with a conservative, he can then retire, extending the longevity of the conservative court with the selection of a younger person.
Many of the important concerns to the Democratic Party were achieved by getting the courts to legislate on issues that they could not get through the Congress. The next Supreme Court appointment may possibly be asked to erase much of the agenda that took the Democrats 40 years to achieve.
The American Bar Association has endorsed Judge Kavanaugh as qualified, and a percentage of those voting rated him uniquely qualified for the position of Supreme Court Justice. The Democratic Party has yet to understand that the majority of American people want Judge Kavanaugh to be confirmed. According to Rasmussen, 83 percent of Americans expect Judge Kavanaugh to be confirmed, and by a margin of six to one, it is very likely he will be confirmed.
I have written several commentaries suggesting that the Democrats have picked the wrong battles to go all out. The real issue is if the next justice to be replaced will be on the Left. The Democrats probably will have spent so much political capital on Kavanaugh that when the next confirmation hearing comes, they will have very little substance with which to fight without being considered the boy who cried wolf.
The outcome of the mid-term elections may destroy the chances of Democrats getting control of the Supreme Court for several generations.
Dan Perkins is an author of both thrillers and children’s books. He appears on over 1,100 radio stations. Mr. Perkins appears regularly on international TV talk shows, he is current events commentator for seven blogs, and a philanthropist with his foundation for American veterans, Songs and Stories for Soldiers, Inc. More information about him, his writings, and other works are available on his website, DanPerkins.guru. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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