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Kavanaugh's Judiciary Hearing Day Two

By: Jenny Lea

September 5, 2018

I missed the first 20 minutes or so. Which includes the chaos of the protestors and the introduction by Committee Chairman Grassley. Kavanaugh did quote both Judge Kagan and Ginsberg. He follows the rule: “How is it done before.” Referring to “precedent”. And he starts every case with an open mind.

Starting with (D) Dianne Feinstein – She started with GUNS. She gave a speech about gun violence. Including, “School shootings. I never thought this would happen in our country. That someone would bring a semi-automatic assault weapon into a school.” (Note: The first school shooting in the USA occurred Nov. 12, 1840. There have been school shootings every decade since then, including a shootout in 1898.) Kavanaugh replied that he does not get to pick and choose Supreme Court precedent. He must follow them all. Feinstein specified “common use” weapons, and if semi-automatic “assault” rifles are common. Kavanaugh said he follows Judge Scalia’s view, if enough people own it, it is considered common. Feinstein did not agree; her view is if people use the item daily it would be common use. Feinstein moved on to ABORTION. She wanted to know what Kavanaugh meant by “Roe vs Wade being “settled law”. Kavanaugh referred to the multiple abortion cases since Roe vs. Wade, re-affirming Roe vs Wade multiple times. (Note: Ultimately, to overturn Roe vs. Wade, multiple cases need to be overturned. Odds are it will not happen, and a Supreme Court Judge cannot just get a bug his butt to overturn a case. It needs to be brought to a Judge and in this case 9 Judges. Making it sound as if Kavanaugh could just step in and instantly overturn a case, is a DNC scare tactic.) Feinstein’s final question was if "a sitting President be required to respond to a subpoena?” Kavanaugh was not willing to answer the question, due to it being a hypothetical question. He indicated earlier in the hearing, that previous U.S. Supreme Court Judge’s were not willing to answer hypothetical questions during their nomination hearing and utilized that as a precedent for his nomination hearing.

(R) Orrin Hatch – He went through some of the DNC propaganda, allowing Kavanaugh to respond. Asking how he would rule if Trump were to be in court on criminal charges. Kavanaugh said he would judge according to law, precedent and in reference with the other 8 Judges. Hatch also asked about his view on women in the workplace. Kavanaugh brought up his current record of bringing in women and minorities as law assistance. He believes everyone should have the chance to have a law career.

(D) Patrick Leahy – Seemed to think this was more of an interrogation rather than a hearing. He kept poking and prodding about issues that occurred 20 years ago with Manny Miranda, who served as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for (R) Senator Orrin Hatch. Who resigned after emailing private DNC emails and letters to the Wall Street Journal. Kavanaugh did not recall any “secret” emails or meetings with Manny Miranda who was in the White House the same time Kavanaugh was working in the White House. Leahy then started asking hypothetical questions about different issues, which Kavanaugh declined to answer. Leahy also brought up not receiving so many pages of Kavanaugh’s background, and Committee Chairman Grassley reminded Leahy, all the pages are at the Judicial Committee site, able to be viewed.

(R) Lindsey Graham – Mainly reassured Kavanaugh that he will have enough votes to be the next Supreme Court Judge. He also brought up how, when previous Democrat Judges were nominated they had a bipartisan vote with Republicans willing to make an objective decision, and it is sad that today Democrats are willing to vote against a nominee before a Judicial Committee Hearing occurs. While talking with Kavanaugh, Kavanaugh assured Graham he will always listen to both sides of an issue. He does not live in a bubble, he knows and understands real world issues. He volunteers with his local church to help the homeless and talks to everyone and gets to know who they are, how they are doing and how did they end up homeless.

=~-~= Judiciary Committee Hearing took a lunch Break =~-~=

(D) Dick Durbin – He asked if Kavanaugh knew he would be the first Supreme Court Nominee to assert Executive Privilege and limit access to part of his background information. Kavanaugh reminded Durbin, Judge Scalia and Roberts both had documents that were not available during their Nominations. Durbin tried to twist the blame of the information being withheld on Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh has no control over Executive Privilege. Durbin has been in the Senate long enough and he seems like an intelligent person, therefor he is trying to twist the blame. He has also started saying they only have “10%” of Kavanaugh’s background. I did not hear him utilize that percentage yesterday. Odds are the Democrats had another pow wow last night and all agreed to roll with 10%. Once again, he referred to Mr. Magical Bill Burck, seriously, he needs to open a search engine. Kavanaugh told Durbin, it is not his responsibility. It is the responsibility of the Senate and the Executive Branch. Grassley had to step in and remind Durbin, the request is made by George W. Bush and he is within his Federal right to make that request. Durbin went on to try and catch him on an abortion case, leaving out the case was about a girl that was a minor. Kavanaugh brought up her age and explained how her needing a guardian and counselor as per precedent and law is what caused the delay in her hearing. Durbin then dug up another Kavanaugh case that referred to a company who hired over 400 illegal immigrants. Kavanaugh had ruled the illegal immigrants were not able to be protected by the Union due to not being legal employees by the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board). Durbin went on about how Judges did not agree with Kavanaugh and recited only the first part of the case where the court had considered the illegal immigrants employees by definition. Kavanaugh explained the rest of the case, that Durbin had left out, where the NLRB did not consider them to be legal employees and today is still willing to stand by his decision.

=~-~= Judiciary Committee Hearing took a break due to issues in the Senate =~-~=

(R) John Cornyn – Started by asking him if a Judge should lean Republican or Democrat. Kavanaugh responded with NO, a Judge is supposed to be Independent. Cornyn brought up how Democrats say he is a Republican Judge. Kavanaugh has voted Republican, but as a Judge, he is Independent. He looks at every case objectively. Cornyn then referred to a case in which Kavanaugh ruled in favor of Osama Bin Laden’s bodyguard and driver. Kavanaugh said the rule of law came first, not his own personal feelings and 9/11 experience. Cornyn went on to say it was a fine example how people can depend on Kavanaugh to take the side of the law over favoring the Big Guy over the Small Guy.

(D) Sheldon Whitehouse – To start, Whitehouse is a real Jackass, that is just my opinion. Glad he is not a Texas Senator, he can stay in Rhode Island. He started with whether Kavanaugh could guarantee health insurance companies will maintain accepting people with pre-existing conditions. Whitehouse kept interrupting Kavanaugh, trying to get him to say yes or no and move on. However, Kavanaugh, explained that he could not determine the outcome of a hypothetical question, ultimately, he could not guarantee it. However, no Judge can guarantee it will maintain itself. Legally speaking it would be up to future cases and the legal teams within them, or if something were to change within the Senate with enough backing to make it a legal ability. Then he followed in his Party’s footsteps by once again whining about the pages that have been currently redacted at George W. Bush’s request. Seriously, why don’t they call Bush, they are bound to have his phone number, BUT NO they want to make it seem as if Kavanaugh had control over it. Then he tried to get information out of Kavanaugh concerning the Federalist Society, a group of Law and Public Society Conservatives and Libertarians. And then acting as if the Democrats don’t have any groups out in the USA who spends a whole bunch of money on campaigns, he kept interrogating Kavanaugh about the group, and talked about other possibly right leaning groups that bring in large amounts of money, some from anonymous donors who buy campaign ads, possibly buy elections and court results. It is not right to buy an election or a court hearing or so on, but he acts like his poop don’t stink when his own side is doing the same thing he is complaining about. If he really cared, he wouldn’t be pointing the finger at one side, he would be looking for ALL no matter the party lines. Ultimately, as a Supreme Court Judge, unless a specific case comes to the Supreme Court Docket, there is nothing Kavanaugh can do. He is nominated to be a Judge, not a detective. As Kavanaugh said, he is more concerned with the quality of the case over the people who brought it to the docket. Either way, everyone at today’s hearing should smell squeaky clean; because, Whitehouse brought a big soap box with him.

(R) Mike Lee (Temporarily filling in for Grassley) – did clarify a few things. Asking Kavanaugh if he was contacted by the Federalist Society after he was nominated for SCOTUS, and Kavanaugh answered, No. Lee asked questions confirming Kavanaugh’s knowledge of different types of courts and laws.

(D) Amy Klobuchar – Once again whining about the documents that have been withheld by George W. Bush. Then she asked Kavanaugh questions about issues that are the responsibility of the Senate, and that was in his responses. She brought up a pending case in Texas concerning the Affordable Care Act, he was legally unable to respond to a pending case in a Judiciary Committee. She asked him about an opinion paper he wrote about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (cfpb) being unconstitutional. She misinterpreted his paper by thinking he wanted the agency to be shut down and all other single person run agencies. However, his issue with cfpb was that the person in control of the agency could not be removed, whether they were doing their job properly or not. Traditionally, other agencies, including Social Security and other agencies she referred to have only one person in charge, but they can be removed and replaced at will. He did not want to shut down cfpb, he wanted them to allow the person in charge to be replaced if need be. He kept trying to explain it to her, but she didn’t seem to understand it. So, she went on to ask about his views with companies merging and his views about whether different should merge. His main concern with companies being allowed to merge, is how will it effect consumers. If the merge will crank prices up or make it harder for consumers to acquire products, he would be prone to not approve a merge.

Go To: Kavanaugh's Judiciary Hearing Day Three

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