Supreme Court justices condemn partisan treatment of nominee Brett Kavanaugh by senators
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During the third day of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Senator Cory Booker challenged his colleagues to try and expel him for breaking a rule that he opposes by releasing confidential emails.
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – Three Supreme Court justices – from both the liberal and conservative wings of the high court – have decried the Senate’s highly partisan confirmation process for nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg this week called the recent confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh by the Senate Judiciary Committee a “highly partisan show” that stands in stark contrast to how she was treated as a nominee in 1993.
Ginsburg was nominated by former Democratic President Bill Clinton. Kavanaugh is Republican President Donald Trump’s nominee. The committee is set to vote on his confirmation Thursday.
“The way it was was right. The way it is is wrong,” Ginsburg said Wednesday at George Washington University Law School. “The atmosphere in ’93 was truly bipartisan. The vote on my confirmation was 96 to 3, even though I had spent about 10 years of my life litigating cases under the auspices of the ACLU.”
“That’s the way it should be, instead of what it’s become, which is a highly partisan show,” Ginsburg said. “The Republicans move in lockstep, so do the Democrats. I wish I could wave a magic wand and have it go back to the way it was.”
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas mocked Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey during a recent appearance at the Federalist Society.
Republicans accused Booker of grandstanding when he announced that he planned to release documents about Kavanaugh even though the records had been classified as confidential by the Judiciary Committee’s Republican majority. Booker proclaimed that he was having an “I am Spartacus” moment when other Democrats rallied to his side to support his release of emails about Kavanaugh’s views on racial profiling.
However, Republican leaders declassified the documents shortly before Booker released them, making Booker’s action largely a symbolic protest.Â
Thomas said it would help the confirmation process if senators would focus on asking serious questions instead of “scoring points or looking cute or being on TV.”
The process needs “honorable…people who actually ask the questions at confirmation hearings instead of Spartacus,” Thomas said in a clip released by C-SPAN.
Both justices made their comments before Thursday’s news reports that Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, had received information about possible sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh when he was in high school. Kavanaugh denied the allegations Friday.
Back in July, liberal Justice Elena Kagan was already denouncing the partisan battles leading up to Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.
“There is so much tit-for-tat that goes on in these processes,” Kagan said at the University of Chicago. “Everybody has their list of times that they’ve been wronged. The Republicans have their list and the Democrats have their list.”
“It’s an unfortunate thing,” Kagan said. “Because it makes the world think we are sort of junior varsity politicians. I think that’s not the way we think of ourselves, even given the fact that we disagree.”
More: Watchdog groups asks DOJ to investigate ‘bribery’ for Sen. Collins’ Kavanaugh vote
More: Brett Kavanaugh coasts toward Supreme Court confirmation despite document dispute, public protests
More: Brett Kavanaugh: His views on key issues he could face as a Supreme Court justice
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From left, minority members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wait through procedural delays as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh appears for the third day of his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 6, 2018.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, center, accompanied by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, left, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, right, speaks toward the committee Democrats.
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