Baker: I know I am fortunate because I was able to get the money. What about those who face an impossible choice between health care and food?
Baker: As a Christian, I am against broad interpretations of religious freedom that allows discrimination.
Kavanaugh would have allowed employers to use religion to deny birth control to their employees, As a Christian, she doesn't belief employers should be able to use religion to avoid the laws of the land.
Baker: My faith guides me. I would never impose my beliefs on anyone.
Baker: I urge this committee to block his nomination to the Supreme Court.
Now a former student of Kavanaugh's
Colleen Sindzak, former student of Kavanaugh at Harvard Law School, is next
Kavanaugh has been lauded as an outstanding professor and mentor. She wholeheartedly agrees.
Sinzdak: Kavanaugh's efforts as a mentor are not limited to his clerks.
I expect she may mention this, but Sinzdak was part of the team challenging President Trump's travel ban and argued the case in the lower courts.
Sinzdak: He helped me to obtain a clerkship with Roberts.
She clerked for Judge Merrick Garland on the DC Circuit.
Sinzdak: I am a registered Democrat and also used to clerk for Merrick Garland. I experienced what a fair jurist he is. The judiciary has suffered from failure to confirm him. I nonetheless support Kavanaugh's confirmation.
Preserving the integrity of the judiciary means confirming qualified judges even if you don't agree with their ideology.
Kavanaugh has always demonstrated open-mindedness and integrity.
Sinzdak: With Judge Kavanaugh, I was confident that if I could make the right argument, I could win his agreement.
She was confident that if she could make the right argument, she could convince him.
He is highly principled. Carefully delineates difference between policy preferences and what the law demands.
He is even-handed and treats people fairly and with respect.
Sinzdak: He taught us to look to text, history, and precedent, not policy preferences.
Has never felt he treated her as a "female lawyer" rather than just a lawyer.
Sinzdak: I support his nomination.
Professor Murray, NYU Law
Murray: Over course of these hearings, much has been made of Kavanaugh's warmth in his community.
Agrees Kavanaugh is friendly and charming, but this nomination is not about how he treats people in his circle.
Murray: This nomination is not about whom I would befriend or how he treats a handful of women from elite institutions. It's about women who will not get to have lunch with the judge but will depend on his rulings.
Murray: Confirming Kavanaugh would threaten personal decisions.
Murray: Reproductive rights are threatened by death from a thousand cuts.
Culmination of decades long effort to destroy Roe v Wade incrementally rather than overruling it.
Murray: Kavanaugh's nomination to replace Kennedy imperils way Kennedy held line on undue burden test, as two years ago in Whole Woman's Health.
Murray: Kavanaugh in Garza claimed to follow precedent, but his writing showed a dim view of those precedents.
Jane Doe had already met the Texas standard for judicial bypass, so further delay was unwarranted. He didn't consider whether delay was an undue burden.
Murray: Rather than respect precedent, he will undermine or ignore it.
Like Luke McCloud, Melissa Murray clerked for Justice Sotomayor, but they are on different sides of this issue. Could make for some interesting clerk reunions.
Murray: When asked about agreement with precedent, he simply said he understood their importance as precedents.
We have seen this before with Chief Justice Roberts, who also said Roe was settled law but has voted to undermine it.
Murray: We heard this before by Roberts. Claims to understand the importance of precedent are empty promises.
Now listing various state restrictions on women's ability to obtain an abortion, limiting their ability to participate equally in the social and economic life of the nation.
Murray: Roe not result of activist judges but stems from a century of jurisprudence.
Amar: Kavanaugh is the best candidate on the horizon.
Amar: I too am an originalist. Originalists follow footsteps of George Washington and other founders. Originalism is neither partisan nor outlandish. Hugo Black was leading originalist of past centuries, a liberal and Democrat.
Amar: I believe Kavanaugh will be in this tradition. His views may be better for liberals than Kennedy's.
His writings reflect proper respect for tradition and precedent.
Amar: Kavanaugh's views on the executive branch are quite standard.
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