The U.S. Senate has vetted 19 Supreme Court nominees since Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) took office in 1975, but Vermont’s senior senator said the stakes have never been higher than they are over President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
“I’ve never seen a president act as though the Supreme Court has to be a wing of the White House instead of an independent branch of government,” Leahy said in an interview Tuesday. “And they made it very clear that the president expects it to be.”
Leahy is the longest serving member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to hold confirmation hearings on the nomination. The full Senate must approve Kavanaugh’s nomination before he can replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement at the end of June.
As special counsel Robert Mueller investigates whether Trump and his campaign were involved with Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Leahy said the independence of federal courts is as important as ever.
“We’ve got the Russia investigation, which is a significant one, and here we’ve got [a nominee] who said that the president should be above the law when they’re president,” Leahy said.
Leahy was referring to Kavanaugh’s assertion, in a 2009 article in the Minnesota Law Review, that sitting presidents should not be subject to indictments, civil lawsuits or criminal investigations.
“I believe it vital that the President be able to focus on his never-ending tasks with as few distractions as possible,” Kavanaugh wrote. “The country wants the President to be ‘one of us’ who bears the same responsibilities of citizenship that all share. But I believe that the President should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office.”
Leahy disagrees, and he said Kavanaugh’s philosophy — and its obvious appeal to a president who is currently under investigation — is a threat to the basic structure of American democracy.
“I’ve been here with every president since Gerry Ford. This is the first president who talks as though he does not believe in the independence of the judiciary,” Leahy said. “It’s more than frightening. It destroys the basis of checks and balances in our government.”
Leahy and other Democrats held a press conference Tuesday morning on the steps of the Supreme Court to decry Trump’s choice. Senate Democrats don’t have a majority, however, and they are powerless to block the nomination unless some Senate Republicans join them.
Still, Leahy doesn’t talk as though Senate confirmation is a done deal. Vermont’s senior senator wants to see what the Judiciary Committee’s vetting process turns up.
“I think we should have the hearings; let’s lay out the facts. For one thing, [Kavanaugh]’s got thousands of pages of memos and emails and all from his time at the White House,” Leahy said. “Let’s see what’s in there.”
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Senator loose lips is disgusting. He and his democrat co-conspirators are going to try to publicly assassinate this mans character in order to try and make political points. Kavanaugh is highly regarded by his peers and associates as a jurist and legal scholar. His personal life is laudable in his involvement in his community. It is beyond reasoning how these democrats can deliberately lie and misrepresent his life and career. Shame on them.
Remember when Barack said elections have consequences. I guess the democrats have forgotten.
Kavanaugh is, like the rest of the conservatives on the court, a neo-Fascist. He and the extreme right justices are little more than highly educated skinheads in black robes intent on pushing the far rights agenda no matter the cost or how many people get hurt. They are driven, not by reasonable constitutional interpretation but by hate and greed, to support a platform that places corporate interests above all else, that espouses racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia and one that will ensure a never ending extreme-right congressional majority by rulings of tortured legal logic that allow unfettered cash donations to far right candidates, upholding partisan gerrymandering in favor of the far right and diluting or eliminating all election law that protect the voting rights of minority voters. These are not honorable men intent on preserving justice in the United States, they are men for whom honesty and integrity take a back seat to their own, extreme personal political agendas. Justice for all is an ideal that is now dead in these (dis)United States and the myth of an independent judiciary has been shattered for good.
Leahy, Socialist Sanders, and Welch.. The 3 who doesn’t even stand for the Consitution who hate America. and Vermont who they are supposed to represent… Pres, Trump could have picked GOD and the 3 traitors would have denied him.. All 3 have already bashed Brett Kavanaugh even before Pres Trump picked him.. These 3 should be a shame of their position in Vermont and the Government. . I am so glad I never voted for these fools. You all are a disgrace to Vermont.. . If you write to either one of them they either don’t answer or if they do they lie to you. The 3 who was selling Vermont off to foreigners for citizenships… EB-5.. Maybe if we paid off the 3 they will vote for Brett Kavanaugh.. All 3 sure do like that green stuff.. Right Socialist Sanders and Welch !!! oh Leahy you know whats “More Than Frightening'” YOU being a Senator .!!!!
This man is disgusting. He is all about the Democrat party; NOT Americans. He knows….KNOWS….what he says is a lie. But then, lying is the way this man does business. He is scaring his idiot base. That is all that this is about and he engages in the politics of personal destruction to further his communist party’s agenda. One disgusting human being.
Trump and his so called cabinet are all a bunch of morons, idiots and liars. He is not fit to be president, he is no president of mine!!