Judge Kavanaugh is a Political, Partisan Jurist
and Should Not be Confirmed
by Joel D. Joseph, author of Black Mondays: Worst Decisions of the Supreme Court. Mr. Joseph testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee numerous times, including in opposition to Judge Robert Bork appointment, and was publisher of Senator Paul Simon's book, Advice & Consent: Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork and the Intriguing History of the Supreme Court's Nomination Battles.
Judges are not politicians and should not act with partisan bias. Judges should be independent, non-partisan and have a fundamental sense of justice. Our current Supreme Court is badly split between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans. We don't have one truly independent justice. The worst U.S. Supreme Court decision in recent history was Bush v. Gore where the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on a strictly political vote to anoint George W. Bush as president of the United States.
Justice Hugo Black said, "Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind." Justice Hugo Black should know political winds as he was a Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 when Franklin Roosevelt appointed him to the high court. Hugo Black never should have been appointed to the court as he was political through and through. Hugo Black authored Korematsu v. United States during World War II, one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. The Koresmatsu decision approved the mass incarceration of more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry. This decision has been universally criticized and was officially overturned last month in Trump v. Hawaii, the case that approved the Trump ban on immigration from seven nations.
Hugo Black was more loyal to the Democrats and President Roosevelt than to the Constitution--this explains his abominable opinion in the Korematsu case. Similarly, Judge Kavanaugh may be more loyal to President Trump, and fits the mold of a justice who would author one of the worst decisions of the Supreme Court.
The Fourth Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, said, "What is it that makes us trust our judges? Their independence in office and manner of appointment." Judge Kavanaugh is not independent in any way, and his appointment, by a tainted President under criminal investigation, should not be confirmed.
Judge Kavanaugh is a Republican Party Loyalist
Judge Brett Kavanaugh worked on the Republican effort to impeach President Bill Clinton and worked on the Republican campaign to install George W. Bush as President in Bush v. Gore. He toes the party line on abortion, gun control, workers' rights, consumers' rights, separation of church and state, healthcare and privacy.
Concerning abortion, Kavanaugh dissented vigorously after a district court judge allowed a 17-year old female held by immigration authorities to get an abortion. In his dissent Kavanaugh accused his colleagues of creating "a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in U.S. government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand." The phrase -- "abortion on demand" -- is one of the anti-abortion Republican buzzwords, code for "I am a Christian who supports life of the unborn."
Contrary to rulings by numerous federal courts, Judge Kavanaugh wrote in a dissent that semi-automatic assault rifles are protected by the Second Amendment. Senator Murphy, a champion for preventing gun violence, said, "Brett Kavanaugh is a true Second Amendment radical. He believes assault weapon bans are unconstitutional, a position way out of the judicial mainstream, far to the right of even the late Justice Scalia."
Rights of Workers and Consumers
Kavanaugh consistently rules in favor of corporations at the expense of workers and consumers. Sharon Block, a former National Labor Relations Board member, said that Judge Kavanaugh's D.C. Circuit record "demonstrates consistent support for the interests of employers and a lack of concern for the interests of workers and the government agencies" that are protecting worker rights. "What stands out about Kavanaugh's record in labor cases is not just his consistency in ruling for employers over workers, but the seemingly unnecessary positions he sometimes takes when doing so," Block wrote. For example, Kavanaugh wrote a 2016 opinion that employers can require workers to waive their fundamental right to picket in arbitration agreements. Employers force these mandatory agreements on workers, stripping away their constitutional rights.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
