Don’t Confirm Brett Kavanaugh, Says Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens

“His performance in the hearings changed my mind.”

By Paul Blumenthal

Bill Clark via Getty Images Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said he opposes Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. 

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said Thursday that he does not support the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh “had the qualifications” to be a Supreme Court justice but his behavior at a hearing last week ― where he defended himself against allegations of sexual assault by blaming Democrats seeking “revenge on behalf of the Clintons” ― was inappropriate and disqualifying, Stevens said.

“His performance in the hearings changed my mind,” Stevens said, the Palm Beach Post first reported. “The senators should pay attention to this.”

Former justices do not normally comment on pending Supreme Court nominations, and Stevens is the only living former justice to comment on whether Kavanaugh should be confirmed. Sandra Day O’Connor, David Souter and Anthony Kennedy, whom Kavanaugh was nominated to replace, have not said anything about the nomination process. 

Few figures could be more dissimilar from each other than Stevens and Kavanaugh. Stevens was nominated by Republican President Gerald Ford in 1975. He went on to become the most liberal member of a minority bloc on the Supreme Court. He retired in 2010 and was replaced by Justice Elena Kagan.

Kavanaugh has been a partisan political operative, working with Republicans to investigate President Bill Clinton and helping George W. Bush win the Bush v. Gore court case in 2000 before being nominated to a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. (Stevens dissented in Bush v. Gore.) He was chosen to fill Kennedy’s seat because conservatives are assured that he will be a reliable conservative vote, unlike Stevens (or Souter).

Stevens also noted on Thursday that the partisan political influence over the high court was “worse” than ever. 

“I’ve never been a political person,” he added.

Say goodbye say hello

Republicans are doing anything they can to get Brett Kavanaugh, a sexual/alcohol abuser and misogynist.

The FBI report is in.   I knew that last night.  It will be inconclusive.  McConnell knows he has the votes.

 

They will move it out of committee onto the floor on the weekend.  Murskowski will fold, Collins will fold and so will Jeff Flake and two Democrats from conservative states Heitkamp and Manchen although as of this writing Heitkamp is a "NO."  They will have the votes and Kavanaugh will be on the Court.

Say goodbye to legal abortions that save lives and welcome to the back alley abortion where women die of toxemia; say goodbye to gay marriage and gay rights, rights for persons of color and Hispanics or any kind of affirmative action, in general; say goodbye to your lakes, rivers and streams loaded with toxic chemicals and pollutants a great deal for the petroleum industry and chemical companies.  Say good bye to union rights; say goodbye to limiting billions in bought legislatures, say goodbye to health insurance and welcome back preexisting conditions for which insurance companies will deny you insurance; say goodbye to Medicare, Social Security and more; say goodbye to women's rights and a return to the Mad Men days of the 1950's where women are treated like pond scum and marital rape is legal; Say hello to permanent climate change, ice caps melting and oceans rising; the list goes on and on and on.

Say hello to more voter suppression, say hello to more gerrymandering, say hello to more unjust violence against black men, more black men in private prisons that are already busting from overpopulation and more violence against gays which is already happening.  Say hello to a president who will be granted immense power,  is guilty of many many financial crimes the size of Everest and is guilty of collusion with a hostile power Russia.  Start welcoming Russia's Putin into your homes and maybe even Kim Jong Un with whom Trump said he was in love. 

Say hello to an America where the 2% wealthiest have it all but want more and the rest of us get nothing; say hello to a congress and presidency that is now riddled with horrific corruption and will remain that way because Kavanaugh will provide the 5th SCOTUS vote that will say a president cannot be indicted so there will, in fact, if the Congress remains Republican, a presidency imbued with unbridled power as Republicans capture the third branch of our government, the Supreme Court. Trump will be able to do anything even shoot someone in Times Square and not answer for it.  Say hello to a president who is a financial and Constitutional alleged criminal and allegedly guilty of treason against his own country.  SCOTUS soon will make it illegal to take a federal case into state court allowing for unlimited pardon power and will obliterate the 14th Amendment.  All Trump's children allegedly guilty of so much will get away with it all as he will.  There will soon be many more hair pulling rights fought for so dearly that will end. 

SCOTUS was our court of civil civil rights protection and its last resort.  Now so called "conservatives" will take cases to lower courts and lose just so they can take it to the Supreme Court and win.

I don't know about you but that is a nation in which I do not want to live so where is that window from which I would like to jump.

IF YOU DO NOT VOTE DEMOCRATIC NOVEMBER 6, 2018 THIS WILL NOT BE AN AMERICA YOU KNEW AND I SUSPECT IN WHICH MOST OF YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO LIVE.

YOUR LIFE DOES DEPEND ON IT SO VOTE DEMOCRATIC NOVEMBER 6, 2018 AND RESIST!