Live blog of nomination | July 9, 2018 (with First Mondays)
We live-blogged with First Mondays as President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
3rd & 7 37yd
3rd & 7 37yd
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For those of you who aren't caught up on the last-minute news:
- Amy Coney Barrett is at her house in Indiana. It's not her.
- Kethledge was informed by phone that it's not him.
- Hardiman is in DC, but has a pre-existing reason to be there
- The DC Circuit rushed out an opinion in a boring case about attorney's fees in which Kavanaugh was on the panel, and in which there was a dissent, on a day when the DC Circuit doesn't normally issue opinions
Do with that what you will. -
U.S. Marshal outside of Kethledge's house apparently told CNN he's at home—not a surprise given what we knew, but he and ACB are seemingly officially out of the running. Barrett will be back for the next vacancy if there is one, but this might have been Kethledge's shot.
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Lot of talk about Kavanaugh on the live blog. Here's our profile on him (by Edith Roberts):
Potential nominee profile: Brett Kavanaugh - SCOTUSblog
SCOTUSblogWhen then-candidate Donald Trump released his first two lists of potential Supreme Court nominees in May and September of 2016, the omission of Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit drew comment. Kavanaugh had served for 10 years on a bench known as -
sorry, my previous comment was posted prematurely. my point was that the opinion would have been in the works for at least a few days. I don't doubt that it was rushed out as a precautionary measure, but the decision to expedite it must have bern made before Trump's final decision (assuming the reports yesterday and earlier today were correct)
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Is there anything methodologically distinctive about either of the two apparent finalists? Is it definitely going to be the same orthodox blend of textualism and originalism that Justice Gorsuch embodies, or is there the potential for some deviation in either of them?
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4 out of 9 justices will have been appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote but won their elections for their first term in office. Out of curiosity, I looked up whether this has happened before, and it has: Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote but won his election, and appointed 4 out of 9 justices.