Hirono: Are you telling us that you don't remember this?
Hirono: Have you ever received sexually explicit emails from Kozinski?
Kavanaugh: No woman should be subjected to harassment in the workplace.
Hirono: You already went through that. Did you ever witness or hear of allegations against Kozinski?
Hirono: Do you believe the women?
Kazanaugh: I have no reason not to believe them, senator.
Hirono: You have testified that you saw no behavior at all. He called you a good friend. You joined him for panels in which you patted him on the shoulder and said, "I learned from the master about hiring clerks." You told us about how you've mentored women and hired women. If a judge was aware, would the judge have a duty to report?
Hirono seems skeptical that Kavanaugh would not have known about Kozinski's behavior.
Kazanaugh: If I was aware, I would have called three people -- chief judges of 9th Circuit and DC Circuit, and head of the administrative office.
Hirono: I went through the encounters you had with Kozinski, yet you heard nothing? Saw nothing? This is why the #MeToo movement is so important.
Hirono: We have to change environment in which people hear or see nothing.
Kavanaugh: I agree completely.
Hirono: Were you aware of allegations of violence against Rob Porter before you recommended him to Donald Trump?
Hirono: In 1999, you joined amicus brief challenging Hawaii rules for voting. You also published an opinion piece, Are Hawaiians Indians?
Hirono is going through some claims about Hawaiians that Kavanaugh made.
Hirono: It's hard to know what to say to this.
Hirono: It's hard to believe you spent any time researching the history of native Hawaiians.
Kavanaugh: The amicus brief I wrote was agreed with by 7-2 Supreme Court.
Hirono: Do you think Rice v. Caetano raises constitutional questions when Congress passes laws to benefit native Hawaiians?
Kavanaugh: I don't want to commit but I think that Congress has significant power in this area.
Kavanaugh: As a judge, I would listen to arguments.
Hirono: When the Supreme Court keeps an open mind, one would hope the advocates offer facts. That's not what you did.
Hirono: I think my colleagues from Alaska should be equally troubled by your words.
Raises question about how Kavanaugh would view congressional actions benefiting Alaska natives.
Hirono: You talked about importance of precedent and the strong feelings about abortion. You don't live in a bubble. But I think when you talk about precedent, it's misleading. There are ways to talk about precedent while still limiting women's choices. And that's what you did in Garza.
A Senate Republican aide just passed out paper copies of a press release responding to Sen. Hirono's questions on Judge Kozinski. (Although she didn't seem to have enough copies for all reporters in the room.) Reporters used to get flooded with paper press releases at these hearings, but I think I have counted only three in the last two days. Most are now sent via email.
Hirono: You turned this case into a parental consent case, which it wasn't, against all common sense.
Hirono says Kavanaugh turned Garza v Hargan into a parental consent case, which it wasn't.
Hirono reading from Kavanaugh's dissent.
Hirono: Even if Roe is not overturned, there will be all of these cases that will put barriers before a woman's right to choose.
Hirono: Do undocumented persons have a right to abortion?
Kavanaugh: I decided that case on the basis of Supreme Court precedent.
Hirono: Did you not join the other dissent in Garza because you disagree with the idea that alien minors don't have a constitutional right to an abortion?
Kavanaugh: The government did not argue that position.
Hirono: But do you think that's an open case?
Kavanaugh: The Supreme Court has recognized that person in the US have constitutional rights.
Hirono: You have the highest dissent rate among active DC Circuit judges.
Hirono is now citing studies about partisanship in Kavanaugh's DC Circuit rulings.
Hirono: Why do you rarely dissent for workers?
Kavanaugh: I have ruled for workers and environmentalists.
Hirono: There is a pattern to your work. It's that you do not dissent for regular people.
Hirono: The thing about patterns is that there are exceptions. We are not talking about the exceptions. We are talking about the existence of a pattern. It bothers me.
Kavanaugh references a dissent in a criminal case in which he and Judge Tatel would have ruled for a defendant because the mens rea (criminal intent) requirement was missing from the jury instructions.
Submit Event
