Collins, Murkowski Signal "Comfort" With Kavanaugh

A lot of people were disappointed Trump didn't pick Amy Coney Barrett. Including me.

I suspect the problem was with the new Liberal Twins of the "Republican" Senate Caucus, Collins and Murkowski.

They're okay with Kavanaugh, it seems.

For anyone concerned by that -- a category which again includes me -- Glenn Reynolds offers some reassurance.

But what kind of a Supreme Court justice will he make? And what can we say about the confirmation process?

With regard to the former, it’s likely that he will be another sturdy conservative, somewhere between Neil Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts. Justices surprise the presidents who appoint them sometimes -- President Dwight Eisenhower supposedly said that the two worst mistakes he ever made were the appointments of Earl Warren and William Brennan to the Supreme Court ---but they usually don't. Kavanaugh has been a judge for a while, and is pretty much a known quantity.

Some conservatives would have preferred someone farther to the right, but realistically Kavanaugh fits Trump's stated requirements for the court, and Kavanaugh is probably a safe pick, unlikely to pose any surprise problems in the confirmation process.

The fact that Kavanaugh was a Kennedy clerk might be worrisome. But Reynolds notes that Gorsuch was also a Kennedy clerk, and he's been bang-on thusfar.

posted by Ace of Spades at 03:30 PM

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