Lee to Sinzdak: What was class with Kavanaugh like?
Lee to Amar: Tell me about your affinity with Justice Black.
Amar: He also carried a Constitution. I was charmed by Kavanaugh's. Black reminds us that you don't have to go to a fancy law school to be one of the greats.
Amar: Black was a southern white person who really understood the Reconstruction amendments.
Amar: He was the driving intellectual force on the Warren Court. A former senator turned justice.
[Lee, who asked the question, is actually a senator on Trump's list on potential judges.]
Blumenthal to Olson: We argued before the Supreme Court together, we won 9-0 in upholding sex offender registry case.
Blumenthal: I am troubled by attacks on the judiciary.
Particularly by the president
Blumenthal: I asked Kavanaugh about those attacks and was disappointed in his responses. He would not go as far as Gorsuch as saying the attacks were disheartening and demoralizing.
Blumenthal: Don't you think Kavanaugh has an obligation to stand strong against these attacks?
Olson: I only speak for myself. Our judiciary is the envy of the world. I deplore statements criticizing the integrity or intelligence of our judiciary. I have the hugest respect for Justice Ginsburg.
Blumenthal to Garza: Kavanaugh just discussed a delay in your client's case. Could you speak about consequences?
Garza: Doe never once wavered. Because she was delayed in receiving the procedure, she had to have a surgical abortion, increasing her health risk.
Garza: She had to have a surgical abortion instead of a medical abortion.
Booker, D-N.J., to Murray: You were mentioning standards not applied by Kavanaugh in Garza case. Why would a judge who sticks to precedent not stick to this case?
Murray: I do not understand. The precedent was directly on point.
Kavanaugh: What excuse does he have?
Kavanaugh reiterated the need for a sponsor even though that was not required.
Murray: Kavanaugh testified that he viewed having a minor as a proxy for parental consent.
Murray: Whole Woman's Health is about weighing burdens and benefits, which Kavanaugh also did not do.
Garza: Abortion on demand was not the situation for Jane. She was one of the most vulnerable people in the community.
Booker: It's a fiction that this judge was not doing a try out for this president to be put on the Supreme Court.
Richmond: We have not been talking about an increase in racial intolerance. Whether studying at Yale, just being African American makes you a criminal suspect.
Booker to Tillis, one more mean question
Booker to Amar: In your common law class, do you regret passing me?
Harris, D-Calif.: Conversation has come up that leads me to believe dog whistles had been offered by this nominee, including "abortion on demand." Another "racial spoils system." He told me he wasn't sure he was referring to. I explained it was a loaded term. Can you share what you understand from that term?
Richmond: It's a common dog whistle in the south. You are pitting poor white people against poor black people, and tell poor white people are having benefits taken by minorities. It's not true. Those programs that I think he refers to are righting the wrong history in this country.
Richmond: The use of the term is blatant pandering to a base of people. In the case of race-based factors for college admissions, this administration is investigating Harvard. What does that mean for minorities applying to elite institutions?
Harris to Murray: How could Kavanaugh undermine reproductive rights, short of overruling Roe?
Murray: There are over 10 cases pending in the lower federal courts.
Harris: Can you break this down?
Murray: Over 400 laws passed since 2011. Increase wait times, eliminate certain safe procedures, require doctors to provide false information to patients, etc.
Murray: Laws would increase wait times, eliminate certain methods of abortion, require doctors to tell falsehoods about breast cancer or suicide ideation. These laws have been passed, are being challenged and could make way to court.
Murray: Protections of Roe can be made meaningless by putting up so many restrictions on accessing abortion.
Hirono, D-Hawaii, to Weintraub: Can you talk about dangers you see for Americans with disabilities?
Weintraub: Case with three women with intellectual disabilities. They were not asked what they wanted for personal decisions around our bodies. These women may or may not understand about these issues, but that's why we take husband, friends, supporters.
Weintraub: My husband also has a disability. We ask my sister to help us understand these issues. We need to be involved in these decisions. Judge Kavanaugh took that away from us.
Hirono: Garza was not a parental case, right? I would characterize it as an obvious mistatement of the issue before the case. Would you agree?
Garza and Murray: I agree
Hirono: I think it's troubling when someone mischaracterizes the question before the court.
Hirono to Murray: Can you talk about contradictions in outcomes in dissents in Garza and Priests for Life?
Murray: In Priests for Life, we saw incredible deference to the employer. The common element is that there is no burden that is too great for the woman.
Murray: In Priests for Life, what we saw was incredible deference to the employer's beliefs, accepting that merely signing a form constitutes an unacceptable burden, whereas in Garza, Kavanaugh did not recognize the burden on Jane Doe imposed by the delay in her ability to receive an abortion.
Tillis to Amar: Can you give insights into what best reflects Kavanaugh's thought process?
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