RadioOnFire.com - When Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed (which, given the composition of the Senate, feels almost like an inevitability), there will quite possibly be a 5-4 majority on the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade (depending on how Chief Justice John Roberts votes.
Kavanaugh will pretend this isn’t the case. Some conservatives — either to own the libs and prove that Kavanaugh isn’t a threat to women or to express concern about the choice — have cited his statement in his 2006 confirmation hearing that, “if confirmed to the D.C. Circuit, I would follow Roe v. Wade faithfully and fully.”
But if you watch Sen. Chuck Schumer’s questioning in that hearing, it’s incredibly obvious that Kavanaugh is dodging:
.@SenSchumer: "Do you consider Roe v. Wade to be an abomination?"— CSPAN (@cspan) July 10, 2018
Brett Kavanaugh: "If confirmed to the D.C. Circuit, I would follow Roe v. Wade faithfully and fully. That would be binding precedent of the Court. It's been decided by the Supreme Court." https://t.co/jW09LbeDOZ pic.twitter.com/AEDRY6bCYt
SCHUMER: Do you consider Roe v. Wade to be an abomination? And do you consider yourself to be a judicial nominee, like the president said he was going to nominate people, in the mold of [former Justice Antonin] Scalia and [Justice Clarence] Thomas?
KAVANAUGH: Senator, on the question of Roe v. Wade, if confirmed to the DC Circuit, I would follow Roe v. Wade faithfully and fully. That would be binding precedent of the Court. It’s been decided by the Supreme Court—
SCHUMER: I asked you your own opinion.
KAVANAUGH: And I’m saying if I were confirmed to the DC Circuit, Senator, I would follow it. It’s been reaffirmed many times, including in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
SCHUMER: I understand. But what is your opinion? You’re not on the bench yet. You’ve talked about these issues in the past to other people, I’m sure.
KAVANAUGH: The Supreme Court has held repeatedly, Senator, and I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to give a personal view of that case.
SCHUMER: Okay, you are not going to answer the question.
As a circuit court judge, Kavanaugh was bound in almost every case to obey Supreme Court precedent faithfully. He could try to bend that precedent, for sure, or argue that certain precedents have been superseded by subsequent rulings (that’s what four appellate courts did in 2014 when they overturned bans on same-sex marriage, despite the Supreme Court’s 1972 ruling in Baker v. Nelson that marriage equality didn’t present a “substantial federal question”).
Source Vox
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