Brett Kavanaugh

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Brett Kavanaugh
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office May 30, 2006
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Laurence Silberman
White House Staff Secretary
In office June 6, 2003 – May 30, 2006
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Harriet Miers
Succeeded by	Raul Yanes
Personal details
Born	Brett Michael Kavanaugh (1965-02-12) February 12, 1965 (age 59) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ashley Estes ​ (m. 2004)​
Children	2[1]
Education	Yale University (BA, JD)

Brett Michael Kavanaugh (/ˈkævənɔː/; born February 12, 1965) is an American attorney and jurist who serves as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Kavanaugh graduated from Yale College cum laude, with a degree in American history, where he was a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon. After graduating from Yale Law School, Kavanaugh began his career as a law clerk and then a postgraduate fellow working under Judge Ken Starr. After Starr left the D.C. Circuit to take the position as head of the Office of Independent Counsel, Kavanaugh followed him to the OIC and assisted Starr with his various investigations concerning President Bill Clinton. Kavanaugh played a lead role in drafting the Starr Report, which urged the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. After the 2000 U.S. presidential election (in which Kavanaugh worked for the George W. Bush campaign in the Florida recount), Kavanaugh joined the administration as White House Staff Secretary and was a central figure in its efforts to identify and confirm judicial nominees.^[2]

Kavanaugh was first nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President Bush in 2003. His confirmation hearings were contentious; they stalled for three years over charges of partisanship. Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in May 2006 after a series of negotiations between Democratic and Republican U.S. Senators.^[3][4][5] An analysis covering the period 2003–2018 found that Kavanaugh had the most or second-most conservative voting record on the D.C. Court in every policy area.^[6]

To fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh on July 9, 2018, to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. During the confirmation process, Christine Blasey Ford came forward and, through interviews to the press and statements by her attorney, alleged that in the early 1980s Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her.^[7][8][9] Kavanaugh "categorically and unequivocally" denied that the event occurred.^[10][11] On September 23, Deborah Ramirez alleged sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh;^[12] Kavanaugh denied this allegation as well.^[13] On September 26, Julie Swetnick alleged that Mark Judge and Kavanaugh organized and participated in gang rape; Kavanaugh denied the allegations.^[14] Polling has shown that Kavanaugh has the lowest approval rating of any Supreme Court nominee in the modern era with the exception of Harriet Miers.^{[15][16][17][18][19]}

Kavanaugh was born on February 12, 1965, in Washington, D.C., the son of Martha Gamble (Murphy) and Everett Edward Kavanaugh Jr.^[20][21] His mother was a history teacher at Woodson and McKinley high schools in Washington in the 1960s and 1970s. She earned her law degree from Washington College of Law in 1978 and served as a Maryland state Circuit Court Judge from 1995 to 2001 in Montgomery County.^[22][23] His father was an attorney and served as the president of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association for two decades.^[24] Kavanaugh is of Irish descent.^[25]

Kavanaugh was raised in Bethesda, Maryland. As a teenager he attended Georgetown Preparatory School, a Catholic all-boys high school, where he was two years senior to future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.^[26][27] At Georgetown Prep, he was captain of the school's basketball team and played as a wide receiver and cornerback for the school's football team.^[28] He graduated in 1983.^[29]

Kavanaugh was friends with classmate Mark Judge; both were in the same class with Maryland State Senate member Richard Madaleno.^{[30][31][32][33]}

After prep school, Kavanaugh went to Yale University and majored in history.^[34] Several of Kavanaugh's Yale classmates remembered him as a "serious, but not showy student" who loved sports, especially basketball.^[34] He unsuccessfully tried out for the Yale Bulldogs men's basketball team, and later played for two years on the university's junior varsity team instead.^[34] He also wrote articles about basketball and other sports for the Yale Daily News,^[34] and was a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon.^[35] Kavanaugh graduated from Yale in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude.^[34]

Kavanaugh remained at Yale to attend Yale Law School. During law school he lived in a dilapidated group house with future judge James E. Boasberg and became a basketball partner of Professor George L. Priest, who was the sponsor of the school's Federalist Society.^[36] Kavanaugh served as a Notes Editor for the Yale Law Journal, and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1990.^[37]

Kavanaugh first worked as a law clerk for Judge Walter King Stapleton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.^[36] During Kavanaugh's clerkship, Stapleton wrote the majority opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the Third Circuit upheld many of Pennsylvania's abortion restrictions.^[36] Priest recommended Kavanaugh to Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski, who was regarded as a feeder judge.^[36] After clerking for Kozinski, Kavanaugh next interviewed for a clerkship with Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court, but was not offered a clerkship.^[36]

Kavanaugh was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1990 and the District of Columbia Bar in 1992.^[38]

In 1992,^[38] Kavanaugh then earned a one-year fellowship with the Solicitor General of the United States, Ken Starr.^[39] Kavanaugh next clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy from 1993-1994,^[38] working alongside his high school classmate Neil Gorsuch and with future-Judge Gary Feinerman.^[26]

After his Supreme Court clerkship, Kavanaugh worked until 1997 for Ken Starr again as an Associate Counsel in the Office of the Independent Counsel, where his colleagues included Rod Rosenstein and Alex Azar.^[40] In that capacity, he handled a number of the novel constitutional and legal issues presented during the investigation of the death of Vincent Foster.^[40][41][42] Though Starr's investigation concluded that Foster had indeed committed suicide, Kavanaugh has been criticized for investing federal money and other resources into investigating partisan conspiracy theories surrounding the cause of Foster's death.^[43][44]

From 1997 to 1998, Kavanaugh was a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. In 1998 he rejoined Starr as an Associate Counselor.^[45] In Swidler & Berlin v. United States (1998), Kavanaugh argued his first and only case before the Supreme Court. Arguing for Starr's office, Kavanaugh he asked the court to disregard attorney–client privilege in relation to the investigation of Foster's death.^[46] The court rejected Kavanaugh's arguments by a vote of 6–3.^[47]

Kavanaugh was a principal author of the Starr Report to Congress, released in September 1998, on the Monica Lewinsky–Bill Clinton sex scandal; the report called for the impeachment of President Clinton.^[40] Kavanaugh had urged Starr to ask the president sexually graphic questions and argued on broad grounds for the impeachment of Bill Clinton,^[48][49] describing Clinton as being involved in "a conspiracy to obstruct justice", having "disgraced his office" and "lied to the American people".^[50] The report provided extensive and explicit descriptions of each of the President's sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky, a level of detail which the authors described as "essential" to the case against Clinton.^[51][52]

In 1999, Kavanaugh rejoined the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, as a partner.^[45][39] While there in 2000, he was pro bono counsel of record for relatives of Elián González, a six-year-old rescued Cuban boy. After the boy's mother's death at sea, relatives in the U.S. wanted to keep him from returning to the care of his sole surviving parent, his father in Cuba. Kavanaugh was among a series of lawyers who unsuccessfully sought to stop efforts to repatriate Gonzalez to Cuba.^[53] The district court, the Circuit Court and the Supreme Court all followed precedent, refusing to block the boy's return to his home.^[54]

While at Kikland & Ellis, Kavanaugh authored two amicus briefs to the Supreme Court, supporting religious activities and expressions in public places.^[54] The first, in 2000, in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, argued that a student speaker at football games voted for by a majority of students should be treated as private speech in a limited public forum; the second, in Good News Club v. Milford Central School, argued that a Christian Bible-instruction program should have the same access, after school, to school facilities, as other non-curriculum-related student groups.^[55]

In December 2000, Kavanaugh joined the legal team of George W. Bush, which was trying to stop the ballot recount in Florida.^[56] After Bush became president in January 2001, Kavanaugh was hired as an associate by the White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales.^[36] There, Kavanaugh worked on the Enron scandal, the successful nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts, and the unsuccessful nomination of Miguel Estrada.^[36] Starting in July 2003, he served as Assistant to the President and White House Staff Secretary,^[39] succeeding Harriet Miers.^[57] In that position he was responsible for coordinating all documents going to and from the president.

President George W. Bush first nominated Kavanaugh to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 25, 2003, to a vacancy created by Judge Laurence Silberman, who took senior status in November 2000.^[58] Kavanaugh's nomination was stalled in the Senate for nearly three years. Democratic Senators accused him of being too partisan, with Senator Dick Durbin calling him the "Forrest Gump of Republican politics".^[59] In 2003, the American Bar Association rated Kavanaugh as "well qualified", but, after opposition from Senate Democrats, rated him in 2006 as only "qualified".^[36] His nomination was opposed by People for the American Way.^[60]

The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary recommended confirmation on a 10–8 party-line vote on May 11, 2006,^[61] and Kavanaugh was thereafter confirmed to the court by the United States Senate on May 26, 2006, by a vote of 57–36.^[62][63] On June 1, 2006, he was sworn in by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom he had previously clerked, during a special Rose Garden ceremony at the White House.^[64] Kavanaugh was the fourth judge nominated to the D.C. Circuit by Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate. Kavanaugh began hearing cases on September 11, 2006, and had his formal investiture on September 27, at the Prettyman Courthouse. His first published opinion was released on November 17, 2006.^[65]

In July 2007, Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy and Dick Durbin accused Kavanaugh of "misleading" the Senate Judiciary Committee during his nomination. Durbin and Leahy accused Kavanaugh of lying to them in his confirmation hearing when he denied being involved in formulating the Bush administration's detention and interrogation policies in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. In 2002, Kavanaugh had met with other White House lawyers, and talked about whether or not the Supreme Court would approve of denying lawyers to prisoners detained as enemy combatants. Kavanaugh had previously been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and predicted in that meeting that Kennedy would not approve of denying legal counsel to those prisoners.^[66] Durbin said, "It appears that you misled me, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the nation."^[67] This issue re-emerged in July 2018, as Kavanaugh was under consideration for a nomination to the Supreme Court,^[68] which Kavanaugh received.

The Supreme Court has adopted Kavanaugh's position on cases 13 times, and has reversed his position only once. These included cases involving environmental regulations, criminal procedure, the separation of powers and extraterritorial jurisdiction in human rights abuse cases.^[36][69] He has been regarded as a feeder judge.^[70]

During his confirmation hearing in 2006 for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Kavanaugh stated that he considered Roe v. Wade binding under the principle of stare decisis and would follow the ruling of the higher court.^[71] However, he also ruled in favor of abortion restrictions in at least one case.^[72][73][74] In a 2017 speech, Kavanaugh lauded the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist for dissenting in Roe v. Wade, saying that Rehnquist believed an "unenumerated" right to abortion would have to be "rooted into the traditions and conscience of our people. Given the prevalence of abortion regulations both historically and at the time, Rehnquist said he could not reach such a conclusion about abortion."^[75]

In October 2017, Kavanaugh joined an unsigned divided panel opinion which found that the Office of Refugee Resettlement could temporarily prevent an unaccompanied alien minor in its custody from traveling to obtain an abortion.^[74] Days later, the en banc D.C. Circuit reversed that judgment, with Kavanaugh dissenting.^[74][76] The girl then obtained an abortion.^[74] In his dissent, Linda Greenhouse says Kavanaugh criticized the majority for creating "a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in U.S. government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand".^[77] In Azar v. Garza (2018), the girl's claim was ultimately dismissed as moot after the en banc D.C. Circuit's judgment was vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court.^[78]

In November 2011, Kavanaugh dissented when the D.C. Circuit upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), arguing that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case.^[79][80] In his dissent concerning jurisdiction, he compared the individual mandate to a tax.^[81] After a unanimous panel found that the ACA did not violate the Constitution's Origination Clause in Sissel v. United States Department of Health & Human Services (2014), Kavanaugh wrote a lengthy dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc.^[82][83] In May 2015, Kavanaugh dissented from a decision that denied an en banc rehearing of the Priests for Life v. HHS ruling in which the panel upheld the ACA's contraceptive mandate accommodations against Priests for Life's Religious Freedom Restoration Act claims.^[84][85] In Zubik v. Burwell (2016), the Supreme Court vacated the circuit's judgment in a per curiam decision.^[86]

In August 2008, Kavanaugh dissented when the circuit found that the Constitution's Appointments Clause did not prevent the Sarbanes–Oxley Act from creating a board whose members were not directly removable by the President.^[87][88] In Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (2010), the Supreme Court reversed the circuit's judgment by a vote of 5–4.^[89]

In 2015, Kavanaugh found that those directly regulated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) could challenge the constitutionality of its design.^[90][91] In October 2016, Kavanaugh wrote for a divided panel finding that the CFPB's design was unconstitutional, and made the CFPB Director removable by the President of the United States.^[92][93] In January 2018, the en banc D.C. Circuit reversed that judgment by a vote of 7–3, over the dissent of Kavanaugh.^[94][95]

In 2013, Kavanaugh issued an extraordinary writ of mandamus requiring the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to process the license application of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, over the dissent of Judge Merrick Garland.^[96][97] In April 2014, Kavanaugh dissented when the court found that Labor Secretary Tom Perez could issue workplace safety citations against SeaWorld regarding the multiple killings of its workers by Tilikum the orca.^[98][99]

After Kavanaugh wrote for a divided panel striking down a Clean Air Act regulation, the Supreme Court reversed by a vote of 6–2 in EPA v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P. (2014).^[100][101] Kavanaugh dissented from the denial of rehearing en banc of a unanimous panel opinion upholding the agency's regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and a fractured Supreme Court reversed by a vote of 5–4 in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency (2014).^[102][103] After Judge Kavanaugh dissented from a per curiam decision allowing the agency to disregard cost–benefit analysis, the Supreme Court reversed by a vote of 5–4 in Michigan v. EPA (2015).^[104][105]

In Doe v. Exxon Mobil Corp. (2007), Kavanaugh dissented when the circuit court allowed a lawsuit making accusations of ExxonMobil human rights violations in Indonesia to proceed, arguing in his dissent that the claims were not justiciable.^[106][107] Kavanaugh dissented again when the circuit court later found that the corporation could be sued under the Alien Tort Statute of 1789.^{[69][108][109]}

Kavanaugh wrote for unanimous three-judge district courts when they held that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act could restrict soft money donations to political parties and could forbid campaign contributions by foreign citizens.^[110][111] Those judgments were both summarily affirmed on direct appeal by the Supreme Court.^[112]

In 2014, Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment when the en banc D.C. Circuit found that the Free Speech Clause did not forbid the government from requiring meatpackers to include a country of origin label on their products.^[113][114] In United States Telecom Ass'n v. FCC (2016), Kavanaugh dissented when the en banc circuit refused to rehear a rejected challenge to the net neutrality rule, writing that "Congress did not clearly authorize the FCC to issue the net neutrality rule".^{[39][115][116]}

In November 2010, Kavanaugh dissented from the denial of rehearing en banc after the circuit found that attaching a Global Positioning System tracking device to a vehicle violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.^[117][118] The circuit's judgment was then affirmed by the Supreme Court in United States v. Jones (2012).^[119] In February 2016, Kavanaugh dissented when the en banc circuit refused to rehear police officers' rejected claims of qualified immunity for arresting partygoers in a vacant house.^[39][120] In District of Columbia v. Wesby (2018), the Supreme Court unanimously reversed the circuit's judgment.^[121]

In Klayman v. Obama (2015), Kavanaugh concurred when the circuit court denied an en banc rehearing of its decision to vacate a district court order blocking the National Security Agency's warrantless bulk collection of telephony metadata.^[122][123] In his concurrence, Kavanaugh wrote that the metadata collection was not a search, and, even if it were, no reasonable suspicion would be required because of the government's special need to prevent terrorist attacks.^[124]

In April 2009, Kavanaugh wrote a lengthy concurrence when the court found that detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had no right to advanced notice before being transferred to another country.^[125][126] In Kiyemba v. Obama (2010), the Supreme Court vacated that judgment while refusing to review the matter.^[127] In June 2010, Kavanaugh wrote a concurrence in judgment when the en banc D.C. Circuit found that the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory owners could not bring a defamation suit regarding the government's allegations that they were terrorists.^[128][129] In October 2012, he wrote for a unanimous court when it found that the Constitution's Ex Post Facto Clause made it unlawful for the government to prosecute Salim Hamdan under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 on charges of providing material support for terrorism.^[130][131]

In August 2010, Kavanaugh wrote a lengthy concurrence when the en banc circuit refused to rehear Ghaleb Nassar Al Bihani's rejected claims that the international law of war limits the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists.^[39][132] In 2014, Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment when the en banc circuit found that Ali al-Bahlul could be retroactively convicted of war crimes, provided existing statute already made it a crime "because it does not alter the definition of the crime, the defenses or the punishment".^[133][134] In October 2016, Kavanaugh wrote the plurality opinion when the en banc circuit found al-Bahlul could be convicted by a military commission even if his offenses are not internationally recognized as war crimes under the law of war.^[135][136]

In Meshal v. Higgenbotham (2016), Kavanaugh concurred when the divided panel threw out a claim by an American that he had been disappeared by the FBI in a Kenyan black site.^[137][138]

In October 2011, Kavanaugh dissented when the circuit court found that a ban on the sale of semi-automatic rifles was permissible under the Second Amendment. This case followed the landmark Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008).^[139][140]

More than half of Kavanaugh's law clerks have been women (25 of 48) and more than a quarter have been people of color (13 of 48).^[72] A number of Kavanaugh's law clerks are the children of other judges and high profile legal figures, including Clayton Kozinski (son of former federal Judge Alex Kozinski), Porter Wilkinson (daughter of Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III), Philip Alito (son of Justice Samuel Alito), Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld (daughter of Yale Law Professor Amy Chua), and Emily Chertoff (daughter of former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff).^[141][142]

On September 20, 2018, The Guardian reported that two prominent Yale professors had advised female law students at Yale that their physical attractiveness and femininity could play a role in securing a clerkship with Kavanaugh. Amy Chua reportedly stated that female law students should exude a "model-like" femininity and "dress outgoing" in their job interview with Kavanaugh. Jed Rubenfeld reportedly stated that Kavanaugh "hires women with a certain look."^[143] In a statement to The Guardian in response to the report, Chua released a statement in which she denied the notion that Kavanaugh's hiring was impacted by the attractiveness of female clerks. She stated that "Judge Kavanaugh's first and only litmus test in hiring has been excellence."^[143] Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken has stated that the allegations reported by the Guardian "are of enormous concern to me and the school," and Yale is currently investigating the allegations.^[144]

On July 2, 2018, Kavanaugh was one of four U.S. Court of Appeals judges to receive a personal 45-minute interview by President Donald Trump as a potential replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy.^[145] On July 9, Trump nominated Kavanaugh for a seat on the Supreme Court.^[146][147]

The Washington Post's statistical analysis estimated that the ideologies of most of Trump's announced candidates were "statistically indistinguishable" and placed Kavanaugh between Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito.^[148] Brian Bennett writing for Time magazine in July 2018 reported that Trump and his advisors viewed Kavanaugh as "a stalwart originalist".^[149] Jonathan Turley of George Washington University has stated that among the judges considered by Trump, "Kavanaugh has the most robust view of presidential powers and immunities.^[150] Brian Bennett writing for TIME magazine cites Kavanaugh's 2009 Minnesota Law Review article as defending the privilege of the President to immunity from prosecution during tenure in office.^[150] In a 2017 speech at the American Enterprise Institute about former Chief Justice, William Rehnquist, he praised his opinions in Roe v. Wade and Furman v. Georgia, where Rehnquist dissented in rulings that overturned the ban against abortion and the statutes which supported the death penalty.^[151][152] An analysis covering the period 2003–2018 found that Kavanaugh had the most or second-most conservative voting record on the D.C. Court in every policy area.^[6]

During his hearing, he noted that he has repeatedly described the four greatest moments in Supreme Court history as being the cases Brown v. Board of Education, Marbury v. Madison, Youngstown Steel, and United States v. Nixon, with Brown being the single greatest.^[153]

According to the Judicial Common Space scores, a score based on the ideology scores of the home state senators and president who nominated the judge to the federal bench, Clarence Thomas is the only justice more conservative than Kavanaugh. According to this metric, Kavanaugh's confirmation would mean the composition of the court would shift to the right.^[154] Had Merrick Garland been confirmed, Stephen Breyer would have become the median swing vote when Justice Kennedy retired. However, since Scalia was replaced by another conservative (Gorsuch), it is expected that Chief Justice John Roberts will become the median swing vote on the Supreme Court if Kavanaugh is confirmed.^[155]

The Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled three or four days of public hearings on Kavanaugh's nomination, commencing on September 4, 2018. The hearings were at the onset delayed with objections from the Democratic members, concerning the absence of records during the nominee's time in the George W. Bush administration, prior to his service as a federal circuit court judge. The Democrats also complained that 42,000 pages of documents had been received at the 11th hour, the night before Day One of the hearings.^[156] Repeated statements from the Republicans included the assertion that the volume of documents available on this nominee equaled that of the previous 5 nominees for the court; the Democrats, whose opposition has been unanimously declared, responded with their repeated contention that only 15% of demanded documents about the nominee had been obtained. Numerous motions by the Democrats to adjourn or suspend the hearings were ruled to be out of order by Chairman Chuck Grassley, who argued that Judge Kavanaugh had written over 300 legal opinions available for review. The first day's session closed after statements from each senator and the nominee, with question and answer periods to begin the following day.^[157]

During the first round of questions from senators on September 5, 2018, Kavanaugh held to his earlier stated position that he would not express an opinion on matters which might come before the court. He thus refused to promise to recuse himself from any case, including any that might involve President Trump. He also declined to comment on coverage of prexisting healthcare conditions, semiautomatic rifle possession, the precedent of Roe v. Wade, or the President's power to issue a self-pardon. The nominee was given the opportunity, and expounded at length upon various Constitutional amendments, stare decisis, and the President's power to dismiss federal employees. As in the prior session, there were frequent outbursts of protest in the audience, requiring security intervention and removal, as well as repeated procedural objections from Democrats.^[158]

The Committee's third day of hearings began with furor over release of emails of Kavanaugh relating to a concern about potential racial profiling in security screenings. The day continued with Kavanaugh's attempts to articulate his jurisprudence, including refusing direct questions to opine on matters that he characterized as hypothetical.^[159] Senator Chris Coons had tendered Kavanaugh written questions about any knowledge of inappropriate behavior on the part of Judge Alex Kozinski, for whom he had clerked, including his circulations of sexually explicit emails via his "Easy Rider Gag List." Though Coons had asked him to review his emails from the judge, Kavanaugh's responses were vague, and did not address the senator's direct inquiry.^[160] A fourth day of hearings featured witnesses speaking in favor or opposed to his nomination.

The Committee released a 2003 email in which Kavanaugh said, "I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to [Roe v. Wade] as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so."^[161] Kavanaugh stressed that he was commenting on the views of legal scholars at the time, not his own views, and noted that the case had been reaffirmed on a number of occasions since the time of the statement.^[162] Sen. Susan Collins, a key but undeclared vote in the confirmation, indicated the statement did not contradict Kavanaugh’s personal assurance to her that Roe is settled law.^[163]

On September 27, 2018, the Committee held an additional day of public hearings to discuss allegations that Kavanaugh engaged in sexual misconduct while in high school. The only witnesses were Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who had accused him.^[164] Republican members of the committee did not question the witnesses directly; questioning on their behalf was was done by Rachel Mitchell, "a career prosecutor with decades of experience prosecuting sex crimes, [who] comes from the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in Phoenix, Arizona where she heads the Special Victims Division, which covers sex crimes and family violence", according to CBS News.^[165] Alternating with her questions, Democratic members of the committee questioned Ford and Kavanaugh themselves.^[166] In his opening statement, Kavanaugh claimed the accusations were a "political hit" by left-wing activists and Democrats, saying he faced retaliation by the "Clinton machine" for his work on the Starr Report against Bill Clinton.<^{[167][168][169]}

On September 16, 2018, Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, said Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when she was 15 and he was a 17-year old high school student.^[170][171] Specifically, Ford stated that in the early 1980s, when she and Kavanaugh were teenagers, Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, corralled her in a bedroom at a house party in Maryland. According to Ford, Kavanaugh pinned her to the bed, groped her, ground against her, tried to pull off her clothes, and covered her mouth with his hand when she tried to scream.^[172] Ford said that she was afraid Kavanaugh "might inadvertently kill [her]" during the attack.^[173] Ford stated that she got away when Judge, one of Kavanaugh's friends from Georgetown Prep School, jumped on the bed, knocking them all over.^[170][174] Ford's attorney, Debra Katz, has stated that Ford considers the assault to have been an attempted rape.^[7]

Ford's statement came to light on September 13 when Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) acknowledged the existence of a complaint against Kavanaugh by a woman who requested not to be identified; Feinstein stated that the woman accused Kavanaugh of trying to force himself on her while physically restraining her when they were both in high school.^[175][176] On the same day, Feinstein stated that she had forwarded the allegation to federal authorities.^[11][10] Ford came forward publicly after Republicans criticized the fact that the statement had come from an unnamed person.

Kavanaugh issued the following statement through the White House: "I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time."^[10][11] Republicans criticized the decision to withhold "a vague, anonymous accusation for months" before releasing it on the "eve of [Kavanaugh's] confirmation" as an attempt to delay the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.^[177][178] Kavanaugh later prepared a statement that insisted that due to the serious nature of the allegations, both he and Ford deserve to be heard.^[179]

Ford has provided a therapist's notes from a 2012 couples therapy session involving herself and her husband that relate to the alleged event and its psychological effects upon her.^[180] The therapist's notes, parts of which were released on September 16, 2018, confirm that Ford stated that she was assaulted by students "from an elitist boys' school" who eventually became "highly respected and high-ranking members of society in Washington"; the notes do not name Kavanaugh. Notes from another session a year later show that Ford had previously described a "rape attempt" while in high school. Ford also took a polygraph test, administered by a former FBI agent. The test concluded she was being truthful when she said a statement summarizing her allegations was accurate.^[173][181]

The Senate Judiciary Committee released a letter on September 14, 2018 in which 65 women signatories who stated that they had known Kavanaugh "for more than 35 years" asserted that during the time they had known him, Kavanaugh had "behaved honorably and treated women with respect."^[182] Twenty-four women who attended the Holton-Arms School along with Ford sent a letter to Congress expressing support for her.^[183] Over 1,000 alumnae of Holton-Arms School signed a letter stating that Ford's accusation was “all too consistent with stories we heard and lived” while attending the school.^[184] The Senate Judiciary Committee invited both Kavanaugh and Ford to provide testimony about the allegation on September 24, 2018. Kavanaugh agreed to testify on September 24.^[185] Ford requested that the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigate the matter first, but Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley declined the request, and gave Ford a deadline of September 21 to inform the Committee whether she intended to testify. Grassley added that Ford was welcome to appear before the Committee either privately or publicly.^[186] On September 20, Ford opened negotiations with the Committee to potentially reschedule the hearing.^[187] A bipartisan panel from the Judiciary Committee and Ford's representatives agreed to a hearing after September 24.^[188]

President Trump commented on the initial sexual assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh for the first time on September 17, 2018, saying, "Judge Kavanaugh is one of the finest people that I've ever known. He's an outstanding intellect, an outstanding judge, respected by everybody. Never had even a little blemish on his record. The FBI has, I think, gone through a process six times with him over the years, where he went to higher and higher positions. He is somebody very special."^[189] On September 20, at a rally in Las Vegas, Trump again strongly endorsed Kavanaugh, stating that “Brett Kavanaugh is one of the finest human beings you will ever have the privilege of knowing or meeting.” Trump also addressed the Democrats’ demand for an FBI probe by asking why the FBI was not notified of the alleged attack 36 years ago.^[190] Trump later responded on Twitter to Ford's claims, arguing that Ford would have informed law enforcement of the incident at the time if it had truly taken place. Trump wrote that Ford's statement was an "assault" made by "radical left wing politicians" intended to undermine his presidency.^[191][192]

Ford has stated that Leland Ingham Keyser, a lifelong friend, was present at the party where the alleged assault took place. On September 22, Keyser stated through her attorney that she did not know Kavanaugh and had no memory of any such party or sexual assault. The attorney did confirm that Keyser was a friend of Ford.^[193] Multiple U.S. Senators acquired copies of Mark Judge's books about his time at Georgetown Preparatory School to prepare for questioning of Kavanaugh and Ford before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.^[194]

Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer of The New Yorker published a piece with further sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh on September 23. Deborah Ramirez, who attended Yale University with Kavanaugh, alleged Kavanaugh exposed himself to her and thrust his penis against her face after they had both been drinking at a college party during the 1983–1984 academic year. Kavanaugh said, "This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen".^[13]

Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing Stormy Daniels in her suit against Donald Trump, posted a tweet on September 23 in which he stated that he represented a woman who has "credible information" regarding Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. Avenatti asserted that his client would demand to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.^{[195][196][197]} On September 26, Avenatti revealed the woman to be Julie Swetnick, a former government employee who declared that she saw Kavanaugh and Judge in a queue of males waiting to gang rape a female during the 1981-1982 school year; Kavanaugh and Judge were both students at Georgetown Preparatory School at the time.^[198] Swetnick further stated that while attending a party, she was once drugged and raped while Kavanaugh and Judge were present (although they did not personally participate in the attack on her).^[199][200] In her sworn statement, Swetnick said "I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside rooms at many of these parties waiting for their "turn" with a girl inside the room. These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh."^[201] Kavanaugh has characterized her allegations as "ridiculous".^[14]

Since joining the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh taught full-term courses on Separation of Powers at Harvard Law School from 2008 to 2015, on the Supreme Court at Harvard Law School between 2014 and 2018, on National Security and Foreign Relations Law at Yale Law School in 2011, and on Constitutional Interpretation at Georgetown University Law Center in 2007. Kavanaugh has also been named the Samuel Williston Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School since 2009.^[202] Kavanaugh was hired as a visiting professor by Elena Kagan, who was then the dean of Harvard Law School in 2008 and according to The Boston Globe, quickly became a student favorite professor who was generous with his time and accessible. He would often dine in Cambridge with students and offer references and career advice.^[203][204] Kavanaugh received high evaluations from his students, including J. D. Vance.^[205]

In 2009, Kavanaugh wrote an article for the Minnesota Law Review in which he argued that Congress should exempt U.S. presidents from civil lawsuits while in office^[206] because, among other things, such lawsuits could be "time-consuming and distracting" for the president and would thus "ill serve the public interest, especially in times of financial or national security crisis."^[207] Kavanaugh argued that if a president "does something dastardly", that president may be impeached by the House of Representatives, convicted by the Senate, and criminally prosecuted after leaving office.^[206] The US would have been better off if president Clinton "could have focused on Osama bin Laden without being distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and its criminal investigation offshoots".^[206] This article garnered attention in 2018 when Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump, whose 2016 presidential campaign is the subject of an ongoing federal probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.^[207]

When reviewing a book on statutory interpretation by Second Circuit Chief Judge Robert Katzmann, Kavanaugh observed that judges often cannot agree on a statute if its text is ambiguous.^[208] To remedy this, Kavanaugh encouraged judges to first seek the "best reading" of the statute, through "interpreting the words of the statute" as well as the context of the statute as a whole, and only then apply other interpretive techniques that may justify an interpretation that differs from the "best meaning" such as constitutional avoidance, legislative history, and Chevron deference.^[208]

Kavanaugh had his first date with his future wife Ashley Estes, then personal secretary to President George W. Bush, on September 10, 2001. They were among the occupants of the White House evacuated during the September 11 attacks.^[209] In 2004, the two married and now have two daughters.

In early 2006, Kavanaugh and his wife bought a $1.2-million home in Chevy Chase Section Five, Maryland.^[36] In 2018, Kavanaugh reported that he earned a $220,000 salary as a federal judge and $27,000 as a lecturer at Harvard Law School during the previous year.^[210]

Kavanaugh ran the Boston Marathon in 2010 and 2015.^[211]

Kavanaugh is a Catholic^[209] and serves as a regular lector at his Washington, D.C. church, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament. He has helped serve meals to the homeless as part of church programs, and has tutored at the Washington Jesuit Academy, a Catholic private school in the District of Columbia.^[209][212]

• Note, Defense Presence and Participation: A Procedural Minimum for Batson v. Kentucky Hearings, 99 Yale L.J. 187 (1989)
• The President and the Independent Counsel, 86 Geo. L.J. 2133 (1998)
• First Let Congress Do Its Job; A Deep Structural Flaw in the Independent Counsel Statute, Wash. Post A27 (February 26, 1999)
• We All Supported Kenneth Starr, Wash. Post A28 (July 1, 1999)
• Letter to the Editor: Starr Report, N.Y. Times, (August 1, 1999)
• Indictment of an Ex-President? (with Robert J. Bittman), Wash. Post A12 (August 31, 1999)
• Are Hawaiians Indians? The Justice Department Thinks So., Wall St. J. A35 (September 27, 1999)
• To Us, Starr Is an American Hero (with Robert J. Bittman and Solomon J. Wisenberg), Wash. Post A23 (November 15, 1999)
• Separation of Powers during the Forty-Fourth Presidency and Beyond, 93 Minn. L. Rev. 1454 (2009), video of speech available at the Star Tribune
• A Dialogue with Federal Judges on the Role of History in Interpretation, 80 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1889 (2012)
• The Courts and the Administrative State, 64 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 711 (2014), video of speech available at YouTube
• Our Anchor for 225 Years and Counting: The Enduring Significance of the Precise Text of the Constitution, 89 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1907 (2014)
• Fixing Statutory Interpretation, 129 Harv. L. Rev. 2118 (2016)
• The Judge as Umpire: Ten Principles, 65 Cath. U. L. Rev. 683 (2016), video of speech available at YouTube
• Law of Judicial Precedent (St. Paul: Thomson Reuters, 2016) (one of 13 co-authors)
• One Government, Three Branches, Five Controversies: Separation of Powers Under Presidents Bush and Obama, Marquette Lawyer Magazine, Fall 2016
• Two Challenges for the Judge as Umpire: Statutory Ambiguity and Constitutional Exceptions, 92 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1907 (2017)
• From the Bench: The Constitutional Statesmanship of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, American Enterprise Institute (2017), video of speech available at YouTube
• Congress and the President in Wartime, Lawfare (blog) November 28, 2017, (book review)

• Donald Trump Supreme Court candidates
• George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

• United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Conformation (sic) Hearing on the Nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to be Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit: Hearing, 108th Cong., 2nd Sess. April 27, 2004. Washington: U.S. GPO, 2006. iii, 159 p. ; 24 cm. Serial No. J-108-69. S.Hrg. 108–878
• ———, Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit: Hearing, 109th Cong., 2nd Sess. May 9, 2006. Washington: U.S. GPO, 2006. iii, 103 p. ; 24 cm. Serial No. J-109-73. S.Hrg. 109–435
• ———, Questionnaire for the Nominee to the Supreme Court of Brett Michael Kavanaugh, 115th Cong., 2nd Sess. July 2018
• Congressional Research Service Report R45269, Judicial Opinions of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, Coordinated by Michael John Garcia (2018)
• Congressional Research Service Report R45293, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh: His Jurisprudence and Potential Impact on the Supreme Court, Coordinated by Andrew Nolan and Caitlain Devereaux Lewis (2018)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brett Michael Kavanaugh.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Brett Kavanaugh.

• Brett Kavanaugh at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Selected Resources on Brett M. Kavanaugh from the Law Library of Congress
• Biography from the Bush White House
• Resumé from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy
• Contributor profile from the Federalist Society
• Brett Kavanaugh Attorney Work Files for Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr from the National Archives and Records Administration
• Records on Brett M. Kavanaugh from the George W. Bush Presidential Center
• Nomination documents from the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
• "Judge Brett Kavanaugh & Professor Christine Blasey Ford Testify". C-SPAN. Retrieved September 27, 2018.