Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice Saturday night after the bitterly polarized U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed him. The Senate vote delivered an election-season triumph to President Donald Trump that could swing the court rightward for a generation after a battle that rubbed raw the country’s cultural, gender and political divides.
Kavanaugh was quickly sworn in at the court building, across the street from the Capitol, even as protesters chanted outside.
The near party-line Senate vote was 50-48, capping a fight that seized the national conversation after claims emerged that Kavanaugh had assaulted women three decades ago — which he emphatically denied. Those allegations magnified the clash from a routine Supreme Court struggle over judicial ideology into an angrier, more complex jumble of questions about victims’ rights, the presumption of innocence and personal attacks on nominees.
BREAKING: US Supreme Court releases photos of Justice Kavanaugh taking his two paths pic.twitter.com/nIw7n2JtgW
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) October 6, 2018
Acrimonious to the end, the battle featured a climactic roll call that was interrupted several times by protesters in the Senate galleries before Capitol Police removed them. Vice President Mike Pence presided over the roll call, his potential tie-breaking vote unnecessary.
Trump, flying to Kansas for a political rally, flashed a thumbs-up gesture when the tally was announced and praised Kavanaugh for being “able to withstand this horrible, horrible attack by the Democrats.”
I applaud and congratulate the U.S. Senate for confirming our GREAT NOMINEE, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the United States Supreme Court. Later today, I will sign his Commission of Appointment, and he will be officially sworn in. Very exciting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2018
The vote gave Trump his second appointee to the court, pleasing conservative voters who might have revolted against GOP leaders had Kavanaugh’s nomination flopped. Instead, “It’s turned our base on fire,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters.
Democrats hope that the roll call, exactly a month from elections in which House and Senate control are in play, will do the opposite, prompting infuriated women and liberals to oust Republicans.
“Change must come from where change in America always begins: the ballot box,” said Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, looking ahead to November.
The crowd in front of the U.S. Supreme Court is tiny, looks like about 200 people (& most are onlookers) – that wouldn’t even fill the first couple of rows of our Kansas Rally, or any of our Rallies for that matter! The Fake News Media tries to make it look sooo big, & it’s not!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2018
WATCH: Protests erupt in Senate as Kavanaugh confirmation vote gets underway pic.twitter.com/ufNQcSt5DA
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 6, 2018
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, confronting a tough re-election race next month in a state that Trump won in 2016 by a landslide, was the sole Democrat to vote for Kavanaugh. Every voting Republican backed the 53-year-old conservative judge.
Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican to oppose the nominee, voted “present,” offsetting the absence of Kavanaugh supporter Steve Daines of Montana, who was attending his daughter’s wedding. That rare procedural maneuver left Kavanaugh with the same two-vote margin he’d have had if Murkowski and Daines had both voted.
Republicans hold only a 51-49 Senate majority and therefore had little support to spare.
President Trump on Air Force One: “Women were outraged at what happened to Brett Kavanaugh” pic.twitter.com/FJREoDjT9E
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 6, 2018
It was the closest roll call to confirm a justice since 1881, when Stanley Matthews was approved by 24-23, according to Senate records.
Within minutes, dozens of political and advocacy groups blasted out emailed reactions.
Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List, which contributes to female Democratic candidates, assailed the confirmation of “an alleged sexual assailant and anti-choice radical to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. But we will carry that anger into the election. Women will not forget this.”
Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, called the vote “a victory for liberty in America” and called Kavanaugh “a good man and good jurist.”
White House releases photos of President Trump signing the commission appointing Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court pic.twitter.com/fsWeaaYEyo
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 6, 2018
The outcome, telegraphed Friday when the final undeclared senators revealed their views, was devoid of the shocks that had come almost daily since Christine Blasey Ford said last month that an inebriated Kavanaugh tried to rape her at a 1982 high school get-together.
Since then, the country watched agape as one electric moment after another gushed forth. These included the emergence of two other accusers; an unforgettable Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which a composed Ford and a seething Kavanaugh told their diametrically opposed stories, and a truncated FBI investigation that the agency said showed no corroborating evidence and Democrats lambasted as a White House-shackled farce.
Protesters on Capitol Hill shout "sham!" after Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court pic.twitter.com/Z6ii4yNL33
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 6, 2018
JUST IN: 164 Arrested During Kavanaugh Protests – US Capitol Police pic.twitter.com/McRwmhiRe7
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 6, 2018
All the while, crowds of demonstrators — mostly Kavanaugh opponents — ricocheted around the Capitol’s grounds and hallways, raising tensions, chanting slogans, interrupting lawmakers’ debates, confronting senators and often getting arrested. Capitol Police said 164 were arrested, raising that count in recent days well into the hundreds.
Inside the Senate, resentments fanned by the battle showed no signs of receding.
Schumer called the GOP’s push for Kavanaugh “one of the least transparent, least fair, most biased processes in Senate history.” McConnell said a vote for Kavanaugh showed that the Senate was “a chamber in which the politics of intimidation and personal destruction do not win the day.”
WATCH: Mob of protesters surge onto the front steps of the US Supreme Court as Brett Kavanaugh was inside being sworn inpic.twitter.com/vDciengQgU
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 6, 2018
Democrats said Kavanaugh would push the court too far, including possible sympathetic rulings for Trump should the president encounter legal problems from the special counsel’s investigations into Russian connections with his 2016 presidential campaign. And they said Kavanaugh’s record and fuming testimony at a now-famous Senate Judiciary Committee hearing showed he lacked the fairness, temperament and even honesty to become a justice.
But the fight was defined by the assault accusations. And it was fought against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement and Trump’s unyielding support of his nominee and occasional mocking of Kavanaugh’s accusers.
About 100 anti-Kavanaugh protesters climbed the Capitol’s East Steps as the vote approached, pumping fists and waving signs. U.S. Capitol Police began arresting some of them. Hundreds of other demonstrators watched from behind barricades. Protesters have roamed Capitol Hill corridors and grounds daily, chanting, “November is coming,” ”Vote them out” and “We believe survivors.”
Protesters Screaming At Senators As They Exit The Capitol Building pic.twitter.com/N05syJ6V5m
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 6, 2018
On Friday, in the moment that made clear Kavanaugh would prevail, Collins delivered a speech saying that Ford’s Judiciary Committee telling of the alleged 1982 assault was “sincere, painful and compelling.” But she also said the FBI had found no corroborating evidence from witnesses whose names Ford had provided.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who has repeatedly battled with Trump and will retire in January, wavered but also backed Kavanaugh.
When Trump nominated Kavanaugh in July, Democrats leapt to oppose him, saying that past statements and opinions showed he’d be a threat to the Roe v. Wade case that assured the right to abortion. They said he also seemed too ready to rule for Trump in a possible federal court case against the president.
Yet Kavanaugh’s path to confirmation seemed unfettered until Ford and two other women emerged with misconduct allegations from the 1980s.
Kavanaugh replaces the retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was a swing vote on issues such as abortion, campaign finance and same-gender marriage.
B911 POLL: With The Confirmation of Kavanaugh, Which Party Is More Energized Going Into The Midterm Elections?
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 6, 2018
(AP)
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18 Responses
Wow!! Finally the senate is doing something good!!!!
Congrats to conservativism. Now let’s see an investigation into Feinstein and her shady and highly insensitive action. Let her feel the heat of her shameful action.
His temperament and his unbefitting response op ed
Will retain to my concern for the effects on the Supreme Court
Wow, BH.
I sure hope he remembers this, who the opposition is, what they did, what they stand for, when he has a case in front of him that involves Leftist ideology. They tried to destroy him, just like theyre trying to destroy the country.
And that was over a swing vote. Can you imagine the Leftist anarchy that will result when Rus bas Vashti B. reaches meah v’esrim??
As an originalist he will be good for (frum) Jews. The original text of the parts of the constitution that protect us (ban of test acts, freedom of religion and equal protection) do a good job, and we don’t want anyone apply “modern” reinterpretations to them (e.g. banning bris, kosher food, etc.), as the secular Jews would live to under their “living constitution” theory. However he may be bad for Trump who is a “big government” Republican, and the originalists would be open to arguements that if the executive lacked a power under George Washington, they still lack it, and if something was a power assigned to the states in 1787, it is still a state power (and note that New York and California have recently been pushing the envelope in asserting states’ rights in a way not seen since the northern states refused to honor Federal laws on returning fugitive slaves).
His temperament and op-ed response shows that he’s a human being with feelings compassion and concern as is befitting “man” and was just fine considering what these wicked leftists have done. The Senator whose angry diatribe said it the way it should have been said, par excellence!
I’m glad he was confirmed! Look at the future! It’s a great day for conservative ideology!
Great win for Justice. Great win for the country, Great win for Trump.
Great loss for evil Bolhevik Democtrats. Great loss for that corrupt and dirty Shiksa with Jewish sound name: Diane Finstein. Great loss for Fake News Media and their co-chords in Hollywood.
Now the dems can eat crow!
Its time now to investigate :
Ford , booker, feinstein,alexandria cortez,kamala harris,elizabeth warren,sorris and achron achron chaviv rebitzin clinton just to mention a few
Hey, @”it is time for truth”
This was not an intellectual debate.
They tried to destroy him. To ruin him. To get him fired. To make him unemployable, to ruin his stellar reputation, to destroy his family. To taint his supporters. To threaten senators as never before. To make him A SERIAL RAPIST.
Maybe you just werent paying attention; is English your third language.
BH BH BH BH!
Ok thanks I’ll be there
Whoops wrong message
Now, as part of draining the swamp, they must dump the little pipsqueak, Republican turned Rino, Jeff Sessions. He, at this point, is totally worthless to the President and his supporters. What the President really needs, is a Republican version of Eric Holder. Then, and only then, can he put the Liberal Progressive democrats in their place and take the Country back.
Hopefully they’ll revisit abortion and toeiva marriage
Why is everyone ignoring the fact that the FBI didn’t question any of the men and women who alleged drunken and indecent behavior on his part, and the Senate wouldn’t allow to testify the person who his main accuser said was present in the room and saved her from his alleged attack. I don’t know what if any truth there is to their accusations, but it doesn’t at all sound like the Senate or the FBI really did a serious job of investigating the charges and I don’t find that reassuring.
its should be noted that he wrote a dissent of the rubashkin case (something which the democrats pounced on him for during the proceedings)
> por
It is hard to answer questions that are too vague to understand. As example:
“the Senate wouldn’t allow to testify the person who his main accuser said was present in the room and saved her from his alleged attack.”
Just who is this alleged person? If you mean the person named “Mark Judge” who allegedly jumped on the bed and thus allegedly disturbed the alleged activities, then you should know he was most definitely interviewed by the FBI – so it is reported on the sites that listed those who were interviewed. As example, “thehill” webiste states:
> The FBI has concluded its interview with Brett Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge as part of its investigation into sexual misconduct allegations
The washingtontimes states:
> Mark Judge completed his interview with the FBI on Tuesday, his lawyer confirmed to The Washington Times
And the Botson Globe, etc. etc. etc.
To MoisheInGolus : Unfortunately Feinstein is not a shiksa. From Wikipedia: Feinstein was born Dianne Emiel Goldman[1] in San Francisco, to Betty (née Rosenburg), a former model, and Leon Goldman, a surgeon. Feinstein’s paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Her maternal grandparents, the Rosenburg family, were from Saint Petersburg, Russia. They were of German-Jewish ancestry.