Brett Kavanaugh Tapped to Fill SCOTUS Seat, Setting Up Bitter Senate Clash
Appellate court judge Brett Kavanaugh is President Donald Trump's pick to fill the soon-to-be vacant spot on the Supreme Court bench.
The 53-year-old would replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often served as a swing vote for liberals on social issues like gay marriage and abortion.
Critics fear Kavanaugh, who has a long record of conservative-leaning decisions, would vote against those rulings and tilt the nation's top court to the right for decades to come.
In accepting the nomination Monday night, Kavanaugh said, "My judicial philosophy is straightforward. A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law."
He is, in many ways, similar to Trump's first Supreme Court pick Justice Neil Gorsuch, said Eric Boehm, reporter at Reason.com.
"The two of them attended Georgetown prep together, they were just two years apart in high school," said Boehm. "We now have two guys who may have shared a locker room together in their high school gym class sitting on the Supreme Court, which is kind of crazy and maybe worthy of more criticism than it will get."
Kavanaugh's nomination sets up a bitter fight in the Senate that could potentially have a knock-on effect in the midterm elections in November.
Democrats have voiced their strong opposition to Kavanaugh's candidacy, with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) [tweeting](https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1016493013143605248) after Monday's announcement that he'll oppose the nomination "with everything I have." Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) raised questions over Kavanaugh's support of presidential immunity, suggesting his candidacy is an attempt by Trump to avoid investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Booker's concerns stem from Kavanaugh's 1998 [law review article](http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Kavanaugh_MLR.pdf), which he penned after working with independent counsel Kenneth Starr on the investigation into former president Bill Clinton.
Though he authored the report that suggested grounds for Clinton's impeachment, Kavanaugh eventually came to reverse course, questioning whether a sitting president should be subject to the burdens of criminal proceedings.
"A president who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as president," Kavanaugh wrote.
The GOP holds only a slight majority in the Senate of 51-49, meaning every Republican senator would have to vote along party lines to confirm the new addition to the Supreme Court. However, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are two potential dissenters who could disrupt the equation. Both are pro-choice Republicans who may take issue with the fact that Kavanaugh could help overturn the landmark 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade that established abortion rights.
To complicate the math further, with the midterms looming, some Democratic Senators in traditionally Republican states may also cross over and vote in favor of Kavanaugh, said Jon Miller, CRTV's White House correspondent.
"We have Joe Donnelly \(D-IN\), Joe Manchin \(D-WV\), and Heidi Heitkamp \(D-ND\) who are up for re-election in really competitive races in deeply red states, so they're probably going to have to come on board too," said Miller.
Kavanaugh has been a law and political insider for decades, with some referring to him as the "Forrest Gump of Republican politics." He clerked for the very judge he may end up replacing, Justice Kennedy. He was on President George W. Bush's team during the months-long 2000 recount case against candidate Al Gore. He also served as Bush's White House lawyer and staff secretary, helping Bush navigate legal issues after the 9/11 attack. In 2003, Bush nominated Kavanaugh for his current position as circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC. He was confirmed to the position in 2006.
After the Chicago teachers union voted to work remotely due to what they say is a lack of safety protocols amid the COVID-19 surge, the school system canceled classes on Wednesday, citing harm that remote learning has done to the city's children. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined Cheddar to discuss the issues surrounding the latest dispute between educators and schools. She said that the return to in-person learning would likely be halted until more COVID tests could be provided for districts. "This is a terrible situation for everybody, and we need the testing, and we need the masks," she said. "It's the omicron surge that has created this disruption, and we are trying to do the best we can. And this is the only school district that has this kind of action right now." The teachers might not be returning to their schools for at least two weeks amid the ongoing tensions.
Illinois State Senator Robert Martwick joins Cheddar News to discuss the new bill he co-sponsored allowing students in the state to take 5 mental health days without a doctor's note.
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As the pandemic drags on, so does the widespread great resignation. In November alone, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, marking a new record high, and showing a 9 percent jump from the month prior. On the flip side, the number of people filing tax paperwork to start new businesses is surging, with over 430,000 new businesses launching in November. Rhett Buttle, the founder of Public Private Strategies and national business advisor to the Biden for President campaign, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up a civil investigation into The Trump Organization. The AG's office has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. They have refused to comply with the subpoenas. Bradley Moss, national security attorney, joins Cheddar News to discuss the next steps in this investigation.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has officially reduced the 110-year prison sentence of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to 10 years, calling the initial lengthy sentence “unjust.” Dan Gilleon, constitutional attorney at Gilleon Law Firm APC, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was sworn in as the newest Mayor of New York City. Adams is now expected to work on a number of issues such as crime and coronavirus. Erin Durkin,, reporter at PoliticoNY, joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
California's new composting law will affect what residents do in their kitchens. As of this week, Californians will have to recycle excess food in an effort to reduce emissions caused by food waste. Cities and counties will turn recycled food into compost or use it as a renewable energy source. California's new law is the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the country. Rachel Wagoner, Director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery called the law 'the biggest change to trash' since recycling started in the 1980s. She joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
As the U.S. comes up on the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.,A.C. Thompson, investigative reporter at ProPublica, joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to discuss updates to American Insurrection by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. The documentary investigates the attack on the Capitol touched off by the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump but with new information gleaned since the event including interviews with lawmakers and law enforcement and the evolution of groups like the Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys behind the attack. "In some ways those groups that were kind of the vanguard of January 6 are maybe no longer relevant because their message is everywhere," he said.
