Speaking to a crowd from the East Room of the White House, President Donald Trump announced his choice to replace retiring Justice Kennedy. That choice is Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the DC Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. In the audience were Justice Scalia's widow and Ronald Reagan's Attorney General, Ed Meese.
Kavanaugh has two young daughters, and looks fit enough to serve for 30 years, at least. He revealed he and his wife met working in the Bush 43 White House and their first date was on Sept. 10, 2001, the day before the 9/11 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
Democrats will hate him for the same characteristics that caused Trump to like and select him. He's an originalist who doesn't see the role of the courts as making law, as for example the Warren and Burger Courts sometimes did, but rather of interpreting laws passed by legislatures.
Unable to push their social agenda through Congress, Democrats have relied on the courts to, depending on your viewpoint, either invent rights or find ways to interpret what is already law to support rights for behavior which was once widely illegal. Their fear is that a Supreme Court with a clear originalist majority may find earlier social agenda rulings went beyond the intent of the framers, ruling that judges created law instead of interpreting enacted law. It is likely the Court will not overturn many prior findings, although it may permit the limitation of some by enacted law.
Brett Kavanaugh will take a lot of abuse between now and the eventual Senate vote on his nomination. I'm sure he knows the game is worth the candle, and I wish him well. If you didn't see the Trump announcement, you should know Trump did an entirely sober professional presentation with no wisecracks or ego trips.
