The Supreme Court: Making It Right

Brett Kavanaugh is the second choice President Donald Trump has made for the U.S. Supreme Court since taking office, and he seems to fall into a pattern.  He's a white male, has an Ivy League law school degree, and is young enough (at 53) to steer the Court in a conservative direction for the foreseeable future.

Kavanaugh's bio reads like this:  He's a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.  He once clerked for Anthony Kennedy, the man he hopes to replace on the High Court.  He used to work for Kenneth Starr, who you might recall was breathing down President Bill and Hillary Clinton's necks during the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations as special prosecutor.  And he also worked for both George Bushes (H.W. and W.) during their presidencies.  In other words, he's the political insider Trump is not.

Senate Republicans want to get Kavanaugh confirmed before the first Monday in October (when the new Supreme Court term opens) and before the midterm elections, provided they don't find too many skeletons in his closet.  The Democrats, still smarting from having been denied the opportunity to put Merrick Garland where Neil Gorsuch now sits, do not have the numbers to block or delay Kavanaugh's confirmation.  But they're sure going to raise a lot of hell over it considering what's at stake:  Abortion, gay and lesbian rights, guns, health care, political line-drawing, immigrant reform, etc.

There is also the argument that sitting presidents like Trump who are in legal trouble shouldn't be picking any kind of justice until the investigations are over.  (Too late.  He already did that with Gorsuch.)  Kavanaugh is on record as saying that presidents should be immune from lawsuits while they're in office, unless it's about impeachment.  With this president, that's a possibility.  As it stands, Kavanaugh might be Trump's "get out of jail free" card, as Maryland's Democratic Senator Ben Cardin put it.  Which may not be what the framers of the U.S. Constitution (or for that matter, the creators of "Monopoly") had in mind, but there it is.

Whatever happens to Brett Kavanaugh on the way to his nomination, the liberal wing of the Supreme Court has been put on notice.  As long as Trump or any other Republican is in the White House, they could be replaced any day by assembly-line conservative judges who might make life harder and meaner for the rest of us.  It's something to consider as the United States evolves into a majority-minority country with white men still in control.