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Brett M. Kavanaugh, the federal judge nominated by President Trump on Monday to the Supreme Court, has endorsed robust views of the powers of the president, consistently siding with arguments in favor of broad executive authority during his 12 years on the bench in Washington.
He has called for restructuring the government’s consumer watchdog agency so the president could remove the director and has been a leading defender of the government’s position when it comes to using military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects.
Kavanaugh is “an unrelenting, unapologetic defender of presidential power” who believes courts can and should actively seek to rein in “large swaths of the current administrative state,” said University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck, who closely follows the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Kavanaugh’s record suggests that if he is confirmed, he would be more to the right than the man he would replace, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, for whom he clerked. Kavanaugh has staked out conservative positions in cases involving gun rights, abortion and the separation of powers.
Still, in the run-up to his nomination on Monday, Kavanaugh fielded criticism from some social conservatives who objected to language he used in connection with the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, and to his opinion in a case involving an immigrant teen seeking an abortion. Some of Trump’s core backers also expressed concerns about his ties to the Bush family and GOP establishment.
Washington lawyer Helgi Walker, who worked with Kavanaugh in the White House Counsel’s Office during the George W. Bush administration, said Monday that her former colleague would be “a fair and open-minded justice who values individual liberty and freedom.”
Brett M. Kavanaugh has served 12 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (U.S. Court of Appeals)
“All Americans should be pleased with this fabulous choice,” said Walker, who attended the reception at the White House. “He will respect the Constitution and follow the law wherever it goes instead of making it up himself as he goes along.”
