Iran Press/America: Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Saturday by one of the slimmest margins in American history, locking in a solid conservative majority on the court and capping a rancorous battle that began as a debate over judicial ideology and concluded with a national reckoning over sexual misconduct, The New York times reported.
As a chorus of women in the Senate’s public galleries repeatedly interrupted the proceedings with cries of “Shame!,” somber-looking senators voted 50 to 48 — almost entirely along party lines — to elevate Judge Kavanaugh. He was promptly sworn in by both Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy — the court’s longtime swing vote, whom he will replace — in a private ceremony.
For President Trump and Senate Republican leaders, who have made stocking the federal judiciary with conservative judges a signature issue, the Senate vote was a validation of a hard-edge strategy to stick with Judge Kavanaugh, even after his nomination was gravely imperiled by allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he had tried to rape her when they were teenagers.
The president was exultant. “He’s going to go down as a totally brilliant Supreme Court justice for many years,” he told reporters, whom he had invited to join him in watching the vote on television aboard Air Force One.
But Trump also derided the sizable protests against Judge Kavanaugh on the steps of the Supreme Court and the Capitol as “phony stuff,” and said it was a misnomer to imply that women were upset at his confirmation.
“Women, I feel, were in many ways stronger than the men in this fight,” the president said. “Women were outraged at what happened to Brett Kavanaugh. Outraged.”
Vice President Mike Pence presiding over the Senate during the vote on Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
The Kavanaugh confirmation, playing out against the backdrop of a midterm election where control of Congress is at stake, gave Republicans what they believe is momentum to ensure that they keep their slim Senate majority.
Republicans are now painting Democrats and their activist allies as angry mobs. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, delivered a speech on Saturday assailing what he called “mob rule,” while the majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, told reporters that “the virtual mob that has assaulted all of us in this process has turned our base on fire.”
The bitter nomination fight, coming in the midst of the #MeToo movement, also unfolded at the volatile intersection of gender and politics. It energized survivors of sexual assault, hundreds of whom have descended on Capitol Hill to confront Republican senators in recent weeks.
But it also left many feeling dispirited, as though their elected representatives have not heard their voices. And in the end, it challenged Americans’ faith in the Supreme Court as an institution that is above politics.
Washington had not seen such a brutal nomination fight, Cornyn called it a “cruel and reckless and indecent episode” — since 1991, when the law professor Anita F. Hill accused then-Judge Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her. Senators of both parties wondered aloud how the chamber, and the nation, will heal.
“The road that led us here has been bitter, angry and partisan, steeped in hypocrisy and hyperbole and resentment and outrage,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor, minutes before the vote, adding, “When the history of the Senate is written, this chapter will be a flashing red warning light of what to avoid.”
Saturday’s vote reflected that fury, with the Capitol Police dragging screaming demonstrators out of the gallery as Vice President Mike Pence, presiding in his role as president of the Senate, calmly tried to restore order. “This is a stain on American history!” one woman cried, as the vote wrapped up. “Do you understand that?”
The final result was expected; all senators had announced their intentions by Friday. Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia was the lone Democrat to support Judge Kavanaugh.
Related news:
Kavanaugh accuser calls for FBI investigation
Trump names conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh as supreme court nominee
Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation fulfills a long-held dream of conservatives, who have waged a decades-long campaign to remake the high court. In replacing Justice Kennedy, a moderate conservative, he will give the court a reliably conservative bloc. At 53, he is young enough to serve for decades, shaping American jurisprudence for a generation, if not more.
A spotlight on the people reshaping our politics. A conversation with voters across the country. And a guiding hand through the endless news cycle, telling you what you really need to know.
Demonstrators protesting Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court on the steps of the Capitol on Saturday.
From the moment Donald Trump nominated Judge Kavanaugh in July, Democrats made defeating his nomination their singular mission.
Related news:Trump orders FBI inquiry after Republicans vote to advance Kavanaugh nomination
They warned that he would overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, and raised questions about his expansive view of executive power, which they regarded as troublesome given that Trump is the subject of investigations into his conduct. They also questioned Judge Kavanaugh’s truthfulness about his role in several partisan episodes.
Judge Kavanaugh vigorously denied the allegations in his own angry and emotional testimony before the Judiciary Committee. Before Saturday’s vote, one of his accusers, Deborah Ramirez, who has said Judge Kavanaugh thrust his genitals in her face during a drunken dormitory party at Yale, issued a statement deploring what was about to happen.
“Thirty-five years ago, the other students in the room chose to laugh and look the other way as sexual violence was perpetrated on me by Brett Kavanaugh,” she wrote. “As I watch many of the senators speak and vote on the floor of the Senate I feel like I’m right back at Yale where half the room is laughing and looking the other way. Only this time, instead of drunk college kids, it is US senators who are deliberately ignoring his behavior. This is how victims are isolated and silenced.”
Republicans cast him as a man unjustly accused, who was trying to defend himself. Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, said he saw “someone who was seeking sincerely to defend his own record of public service, his own private conduct against great adversity, in circumstances in which he and his family have been dragged through the mud by no choice of their own.”
While the brawl over Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation may be over, people on both sides of the debate agree it will have lasting ramifications on the Senate, the country and the court.
Read more:
Senate votes to advance Kavanaugh nomination to final floor vote
Kavanaugh denies sex assault allegation
Trump attacks second woman to accuse Brett Kavanaugh
