Senate Votes to Confirm Kavanaugh to Supreme Court
Judge Kavanaugh was confirmed by a two-vote margin, with 50 in favor, 48 opposing, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) voting present. One senator, Republican Steve Daines of Montana, was absent due to his daughter’s wedding.
Supreme Court officials announced Judge Kavanaugh would be sworn in later Saturday in a private ceremony at the court. Chief Justice John Roberts was to administer one of the two required oaths and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy the other, allowing Justice Kavanaugh “to participate in the work of the court immediately,” the court said in a statement.
Saturday’s vote is the culmination of a partisan fight in the Senate a month before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. Judge Kavanaugh is expected to be part of a 5-4 conservative majority that has been a top goal of right-leaning activists for decades, while fueling the anger of liberals who argue that Republicans improperly blocked former President Obama’s last Supreme Court pick.
The emotions surrounding the confirmation fight show no signs of dissipating with its conclusion. As the vote neared, hundreds of protesters marched on Capitol Hill, carrying signs that read “Cancel Kavanaugh” and chanting “We vote next,” and police began arresting demonstrators on the Capitol steps. Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation has already become an issue in the campaign for the November midterm elections.
The fierce battle over whether Mr. Trump would be able to tip the court further to the right was fueled by explosive allegations in recent weeks of sexual misconduct-allegations and a disagreement over the scope of an FBI investigation. Judge Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegations.
After a delay to allow the FBI probe, Judge Kavanaugh cleared his biggest hurdle Friday, when Sen. Susan Collins of Maine delivered the key 50th expected GOP vote for his confirmation in a floor speech that transfixed the chamber. Earlier in the day, Judge Kavanaugh had advanced in a procedural vote.
Judge Kavanaugh could join the high court as early as Tuesday to hear two cases involving sentencing rules. The Supreme Court has been moving to the right for decades, but since the 1980s, a pair of center-right Reagan appointees, Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy, frustrated conservatives by sometimes finding common ground with liberals.
After Judge Brett Kavanaugh cleared a critical hurdle in his nomination to the Supreme Court, senators took to the floor to publicly debate the nominee. Photo: Associated Press
While Saturday’s vote ends the nomination battle over Judge Kavanaugh, the fight that preceded it shows every sign of leaving wounds, including personal acrimony between senators and growing fears of the politicization of the Supreme Court. The outcome is the closest margin for a Supreme Court pick in recent memory, and it sharply contrasts with, for example, the 96-3 vote for Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993.
The outcome reflects a trend of fewer and fewer members of the opposition party supporting a president’s nominee—to the point that some senators have asked whether presidents will now be able to win confirmation for Supreme Court picks when the Senate is controlled by the opposition.
Ms. Murkowski has said she was concerned that the public wouldn’t view Judge Kavanaugh as impartial after the dueling testimony last week of Judge Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the California college professor who alleges he pulled her into a room and groped her when they were teenagers at a party in the early 1980s. Judge Kavanaugh vigorously defended himself, aiming criticism at Democrats for their handling of the claims.
Republicans grew more confident that they would be able to confirm Judge Kavanaugh after the FBI report, which senators reviewed Thursday, didn’t raise any new concerns from the small group of undecided lawmakers. Republicans said that while they found Dr. Ford’s testimony compelling, her allegations were not corroborated by other witnesses or evidence.
Democrats argued the probe was too limited in scope. During the turbulent confirmation process, Democrats cited Judge Kavanaugh’s emails as a White House aide, past court decisions and actions from high school in declaring him unfit, while Republicans asked if anyone would ever expose themselves to such withering—and, they said, deeply unfair—scrutiny again.
One year after the #MeToo movement began costing high-profile men in Congress, media and Wall Street their jobs, women dressed in black filled the halls of Senate office buildings, angry that a man accused of sexual assault would be confirmed to the high court. But Judge Kavanaugh’s words resonated with many who feared that the nominee was being targeted by accusations for which there was too little corroboration.
“Every person—man or woman—who makes a charge of sexual assault deserves to be heard and treated with respect,” Ms. Collins said on the Senate floor. “The #MeToo movement is real. It matters. It is needed. And it is long overdue.”
The vote marked a victory both for Mr. Trump—who has cited his first Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, as one of the major accomplishments of his presidency—as well for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who has made shaping the judiciary a central part of his agenda.
The vote was a “wakeup call to why it’s important to hold the Senate,” Mr. McConnell said on Fox News Friday night, previewing the argument GOP leaders will make to voters ahead of next month’s elections. “You want judges confirmed, cabinet members confirmed, boards and commissions confirmed, we have to control the Senate.”
But the Kavanaugh fight also left many senators unnerved about future Supreme Court nomination fights and about the danger of having the public view the Supreme Court as a politicized body.
“When future Americans look back at these proceedings, let them draw no lessons from the Senate’s conduct here,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Friday. “Let them look back on this chapter as the shameful culmination of the scorched-earth politics practiced by the hard right in America—people who will stop at nothing to entrench an advantage on our nation’s courts.”
Judge Kavanaugh was confirmed by a two-vote margin, with 50 in favor, 48 opposing, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) voting present. One senator, Republican Steve Daines of Montana, was absent due to his daughter’s wedding.
Supreme Court officials announced Judge Kavanaugh would be sworn in later Saturday in a private ceremony at the court. Chief Justice John Roberts was to administer one of the two required oaths and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy the other, allowing Justice Kavanaugh “to participate in the work of the court immediately,” the court said in a statement.
Saturday’s vote is the culmination of a partisan fight in the Senate a month before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. Judge Kavanaugh is expected to be part of a 5-4 conservative majority that has been a top goal of right-leaning activists for decades, while fueling the anger of liberals who argue that Republicans improperly blocked former President Obama’s last Supreme Court pick.
The emotions surrounding the confirmation fight show no signs of dissipating with its conclusion. As the vote neared, hundreds of protesters marched on Capitol Hill, carrying signs that read “Cancel Kavanaugh” and chanting “We vote next,” and police began arresting demonstrators on the Capitol steps. Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation has already become an issue in the campaign for the November midterm elections.
The fierce battle over whether Mr. Trump would be able to tip the court further to the right was fueled by explosive allegations in recent weeks of sexual misconduct-allegations and a disagreement over the scope of an FBI investigation. Judge Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegations.
After a delay to allow the FBI probe, Judge Kavanaugh cleared his biggest hurdle Friday, when Sen. Susan Collins of Maine delivered the key 50th expected GOP vote for his confirmation in a floor speech that transfixed the chamber. Earlier in the day, Judge Kavanaugh had advanced in a procedural vote.
Judge Kavanaugh could join the high court as early as Tuesday to hear two cases involving sentencing rules. The Supreme Court has been moving to the right for decades, but since the 1980s, a pair of center-right Reagan appointees, Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy, frustrated conservatives by sometimes finding common ground with liberals.
After Judge Brett Kavanaugh cleared a critical hurdle in his nomination to the Supreme Court, senators took to the floor to publicly debate the nominee. Photo: Associated Press
While Saturday’s vote ends the nomination battle over Judge Kavanaugh, the fight that preceded it shows every sign of leaving wounds, including personal acrimony between senators and growing fears of the politicization of the Supreme Court. The outcome is the closest margin for a Supreme Court pick in recent memory, and it sharply contrasts with, for example, the 96-3 vote for Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993.
The outcome reflects a trend of fewer and fewer members of the opposition party supporting a president’s nominee—to the point that some senators have asked whether presidents will now be able to win confirmation for Supreme Court picks when the Senate is controlled by the opposition.
Ms. Murkowski has said she was concerned that the public wouldn’t view Judge Kavanaugh as impartial after the dueling testimony last week of Judge Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the California college professor who alleges he pulled her into a room and groped her when they were teenagers at a party in the early 1980s. Judge Kavanaugh vigorously defended himself, aiming criticism at Democrats for their handling of the claims.
Republicans grew more confident that they would be able to confirm Judge Kavanaugh after the FBI report, which senators reviewed Thursday, didn’t raise any new concerns from the small group of undecided lawmakers. Republicans said that while they found Dr. Ford’s testimony compelling, her allegations were not corroborated by other witnesses or evidence.
Democrats argued the probe was too limited in scope. During the turbulent confirmation process, Democrats cited Judge Kavanaugh’s emails as a White House aide, past court decisions and actions from high school in declaring him unfit, while Republicans asked if anyone would ever expose themselves to such withering—and, they said, deeply unfair—scrutiny again.
One year after the #MeToo movement began costing high-profile men in Congress, media and Wall Street their jobs, women dressed in black filled the halls of Senate office buildings, angry that a man accused of sexual assault would be confirmed to the high court. But Judge Kavanaugh’s words resonated with many who feared that the nominee was being targeted by accusations for which there was too little corroboration.
“Every person—man or woman—who makes a charge of sexual assault deserves to be heard and treated with respect,” Ms. Collins said on the Senate floor. “The #MeToo movement is real. It matters. It is needed. And it is long overdue.”
The vote marked a victory both for Mr. Trump—who has cited his first Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, as one of the major accomplishments of his presidency—as well for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who has made shaping the judiciary a central part of his agenda.
The vote was a “wakeup call to why it’s important to hold the Senate,” Mr. McConnell said on Fox News Friday night, previewing the argument GOP leaders will make to voters ahead of next month’s elections. “You want judges confirmed, cabinet members confirmed, boards and commissions confirmed, we have to control the Senate.”
But the Kavanaugh fight also left many senators unnerved about future Supreme Court nomination fights and about the danger of having the public view the Supreme Court as a politicized body.
“When future Americans look back at these proceedings, let them draw no lessons from the Senate’s conduct here,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Friday. “Let them look back on this chapter as the shameful culmination of the scorched-earth politics practiced by the hard right in America—people who will stop at nothing to entrench an advantage on our nation’s courts.”
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