Hearing for Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh begins with protests

WASHINGTON — They yelled, they shouted, both protesters and lawmakers, as the contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh got underway Tuesday.

Kavanaugh, 53, pledged to be a jurist of character and principle if confirmed to sit on the Supreme Court.

“I would always strive to be a team player on the Team of Nine,” Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee, which is holding a four-day hearing before sending the nomination to the full Senate for a vote.

Kavanaugh said he would “revere the Constitution,” and protect the rights of the poor and the wealthy.

His comments ended an eight-hour first day that began with a morning of disruptions and mayhem as Democrats sought to adjourn the hearing and protesters heckled senators before being physically removed from the room.

Republicans barrelled ahead and praised the qualifications Kavanaugh, who served 12 years as a judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He also previously served as a staff secretary and counsel in the White House, and a prosecutor with Independent Counsel Ken Starr whose probe led to the House impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

President Donald Trump plucked Kavanaugh from a list of anti-abortion candidates compiled by the Federalist Society as possible picks for Supreme Court vacancies.

Kavanaugh was nominated in July when Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement.

Questions about Roe v. Wade

The selection of Kavanaugh prompted concern from women’s health organizations and abortion-rights groups that Kavanaugh would roll back protections and access to abortion.

Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sought to steer the confirmation hearing away from how Kavanaugh would rule on the issue.

He noted that Justice Elena Kagan, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, would not comment on Roe v. Wade, the landmark law that allowed abortion nationwide, when she was a nominee. She said it was settled law.

“Senators should be satisfied if Kavanaugh answers similarly,” Grassley said.

But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Trump pledged on the campaign trail that, if elected, he would pick “anti-choice” and pro-gun candidates for Supreme Court vacancies.

“We believe what he said,” Feinstein said.

Kavanaugh told lawmakers before the hearing that he sees Roe v. Wade as precedent, but concern about how he would rule on reproductive rights prompted most of the protests at the rear of the Hart Senate Office Building hearing room.

“Senators, vote ‘no’ on Kavanaugh,” one woman yelled. “I am in a wheelchair and I’m from Illinois.”

Other women were whisked out of the room yelling “stop the oppression of women.”

The yelling and disruptions rankled lawmakers.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called it “mob rule.”

“I don’t know if the committee needs to put up with this kind of insolence,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, fumed, then added that the “loudmouths” and protesters “don’t belong in the same doggone room.”

Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., threatened to stop his opening remarks if he would be continuously interrupted: “I don’t care which side they are on.”

Dems seek to delay hearing

Amid the disruptions, Democrats sought to delay the hearing. They claimed they didn’t have all the documents they sought — citing 102,000 pages withheld by the White House on Friday. Democrats said 42,000 pages of documents were “dumped” on them just hours before the hearing.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., raised a motion to adjourn the hearing. But Grassley ruled the motion out of order because the committee was not in executive session.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said she stood with committee Democrats in their call to suspend the hearing until the documents issues are sorted out.

“This isn’t ‘regular order,’ this is a joke,” Cortez Masto said on social media.

Democrats, too, are still smarting from Republican success in blocking the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, who was picked by Obama to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016.

“My colleagues refused to even meet with (Garland), let alone hold a vote,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.

That seat was filled by Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch.

The hearing room chaos occurred hours before Kavanaugh began his own statement on his nomination. He is expected to take questions by the committee on Wednesday.

The nominee was introduced by former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Lisa Blatt, a liberal feminist lawyer who has argued 35 cases before the Supreme Court. She said Kavanaugh was a mentor for her, and he was an advocate for hiring women.

Blatt said that with a Republican-controlled Senate and Judiciary, Kavanaugh “is the best choice liberals could reasonably hope for.”

Kennedy and Kavanaugh

Kavanaugh told the panel that he was honored to be selected to succeed Kennedy, a mentor to the young Yale law student. Kavanaugh said he would be a “neutral and impartial arbiter” if confirmed to the court.

He said he would not decide cases on personal or political preferences.

“A good judge must be an umpire,” Kavanaugh said.

Ahead of the hearings, special interests groups for conservative and liberal causes spent millions in advertising campaigns to sway public opinion.

Democrats held up for three years Kavanaugh’s nomination by President George W. Bush to serve on the DC Circuit Court, considered a stepping stone to the high court.

Kavanaugh was blocked by Democrats then over his participation as White House counsel and staff secretary during an era of surveillance and torture memos following Sept. 11, 2001. Democrats questioned his involvement in partisan issues.

Nonethess, he was confirmed 57-36 by the Senate in 2006.

Kavanaugh also served with Starr, and was active in compiling the documents used by the House of Representatives to impeach Clinton over testimony concerning an extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinski.

Senators are expected to grill Kavanaugh on his wavering stance on executive power, first pushing for the impeachment of Clinton and later taking the position that presidents should not be encumbered by investigations while in office.

The questions come as Trump faces a special counsel investigation, and former campaign staff and personal lawyers have pleaded guilty or are under indictment for criminal wrongdoing.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., dismissed Democratic attacks on Kavanaugh for being nominated by Trump, and for conservative views on matters of public interest.

If you want to pick judges, Graham told his Democratic colleagues, “win elections.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.