The Daily Signal provides insight into Brett Kavanaugh’s role in the conservative majority, his decisions on key cultural and constitutional issues, and their national implications.
Chaos gripped the opening moments of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing Tuesday, as Democratic senators attempted to delay proceedings while protesters heckled Republican lawmakers. As Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, gave his opening statement, Democrats urged the panel to adjourn and delay the hearing, in view of the…
Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to serve on the Supreme Court is the most contentious issue in the Senate, prompting intense partisan debate and numerous claims about his views. President Donald Trump nominated the federal appeals court judge July 8 to fill the seat of retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Here are the facts on four of Democrats’…
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh begins at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 4. Here’s what you can expect. The committee has 21 members—11 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is the chairman and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is the ranking member, or lead member of the minority…
When Sarah Pitlyk went to clerk for Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit Court, she found herself in a unique situation: Between the time she interviewed for the job, and went to begin the clerkship, Pitlyk had given birth. “At the time,” Pitlyk told The Daily Signal, “it was unprecedented.” “I was the first…
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., served on the Judiciary Committee in 2009. During the confirmation for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Schumer said that even in “hot-button cases,” judges should follow the law even if it results in rulings against so-called sympathetic litigants.” That’s an important principle to follow as the Senate considers Judge…
Article 30 of the Massachusetts Constitution, authored by John Adams and adopted in 1780, calls for a “government of laws and not of men.” The principle referred to as “the rule of law” sounds nice in the abstract and fits comfortably in easy situations, but is truly tested in the tough cases. In the tough…
Perhaps one day a court will find that Donald Trump conspired with his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to pay nondisclosure agreements meant to silence his mistresses. Perhaps one day the House will impeach Trump for breaking those campaign finance laws, and then maybe the Senate will also remove him from office. Those are the mechanisms…
Roman Martinez’s father immigrated from Cuba to the United States after communist dictator Fidel Castro took power. Because of that, Martinez says he has a unique appreciation for the U.S. Constitution. That appreciation led him to pursue a career in law, which in 2008 led him to a clerkship with Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit Court…
Almost 20 special-interest groups organized a “Working Women Will #StopKavanaugh” demonstration on Wednesday, hoping to encourage senators to oppose Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination and delay his confirmation hearings scheduled to begin after Labor Day. But when we took our cameras to the event, none of the “working women” or other activists would talk…
When the issue of workplace sexual harassment and assault becomes political, something has gone terribly wrong. Something has gone terribly wrong with the individuals leading that fight, and something has gone terribly wrong with the organizations backing it. So is the case for the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, established to advance the #MeToo movement….
In 2009, current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor that “your record on the bench” was “the best way to get a sense of what your record will be on the bench in the future.” That commonsense principle was right then, and it remains right today as the Senate Judiciary…
Legal experts say that decisions by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, will be based on the separation of powers and the rule of law. “[Kavanaugh] has really emphasized that to keep accountability in government, that the role of Congress and the role of the executive [branch] as being the elected…
President James Madison once described how government reflects human nature. It also could be said that the confirmation of Supreme Court justices puts a spotlight on the nature of government. The debate over any judicial nomination, especially to the Supreme Court, puts into very sharp relief the two different views of how much power judges…
The confirmation hearings for federal appeals court Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to become the next Supreme Court justice will begin on Sept. 4 and last three to four days, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced Friday. Grassley’s announcement comes as Senate Democrats sought to further stall the hearings, demanding more documents on Kavanaugh’s…
It’s been about five weeks since President Donald Trump announced his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Ever since, Trump’s opponents have been throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall, trying to find some negative argument or way of framing this nomination that will get some traction. We’re past the silly season…
When Sarah Pitlyk, a graduate of Yale Law School, was months away from starting her clerkship for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, she was worried if she would be able to balance this opportunity while being a mom to her 1-year-old son. “I got a call from Judge Kavanaugh, and he just put it out there: You’re…
Senate Democrats have done an about-face on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. At first, they had no doubt that Kavanaugh was nothing less than an existential threat to the Constitution. If he were confirmed, they said, millions of lives would be lost and the future of America would be nasty, brutish, and short. Now,…
Legal experts say the fight for the original meaning of the Constitution will play a significant role in the confirmation process for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. “The fork in the road as it plays out in the Supreme Court is now going to be the centerpiece of these confirmation hearings,” said John Eastman,…
In less than three weeks, opponents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court have become completely unhinged. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has actually said that supporting the Kavanaugh nomination means being “complicit” in “evil.” Here’s how the smear campaign is unfolding. First, Democrats said silly things like suggesting that Kavanaugh’s purchase of Washington…
Hours after President Donald Trump announced his nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said: “The American people deserve to know what kind of a Justice President Trump’s nominee would be.” He’s right—and the answer to that question is readily available in Kavanaugh’s record. Each nominee has…