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Senate Confirms Kavanaugh to Supreme Court, Ending a Clash With Lasting Fallout Kavanaugh Is Sworn In After Close Confirmation Vote in Senate
(35 minutes later)
WASHINGTON — A deeply divided Senate voted on Saturday to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, delivering a victory to President Trump and ending a rancorous Washington battle that began as a debate over ideology and jurisprudence and concluded with questions of sexual misconduct. WASHINGTON — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Saturday by one of the slimmest margins in American history, locking in a solid conservative majority on the court and capping a rancorous battle that began as a debate over judicial ideology and concluded with a reckoning over sexual misconduct.
Judge Kavanaugh was quickly sworn in by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in a private ceremony. As a chorus of women in the Senate’s public galleries repeatedly interrupted the proceedings with cries of “Shame!,” somber-looking senators voted 50 to 48 — almost entirely along party lines — to elevate Judge Kavanaugh. He was promptly sworn in by both Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy — the court’s longtime swing vote, whom he will replace — in a private ceremony.
Mr. Trump exulted on Twitter. “I applaud and congratulate the U.S. Senate for confirming our GREAT NOMINEE, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the United States Supreme Court,” he wrote. For Mr. Trump and Senate Republican leaders, who have made stocking the federal judiciary with conservative judges a signature issue, the Senate vote was a validation of a hard-edge strategy to stick with Judge Kavanaugh, even after his nomination was gravely imperiled by allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he had tried to rape her when they were teenagers.
The Senate vote was 50 to 48, almost entirely along party lines. It did not go smoothly — protesters repeatedly interrupted the proceedings, with the Capitol Police dragging screaming demonstrators out of the gallery as the senators sat somberly at their wooden desks in the chamber below. “This is a stain on American history!” one woman cried, as the vote wrapped up. “Do you understand?” The president was exultant. “He’s going to go down as a totally brilliant Supreme Court justice for many years,” he told reporters, whom he had invited to join him in watching the vote on television aboard Air Force One. But Mr. Trump also derided the sizable protests against Judge Kavanaugh on the steps of the Supreme Court and the Capitol as “phony stuff,” and said it was a misnomer to imply that women were upset at his confirmation.
The final result was expected; all senators had announced their intentions by Friday. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — the lone Republican to break with her party — was recorded as “present” instead of “no” as a gesture to a colleague, Senator Steve Daines of Montana, who was attending his daughter’s wedding and would have voted “yes.” By voting present, she maintained the two-vote margin that had pushed the nomination past a crucial procedural hurdle on Friday. Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia was the lone Democrat to support Judge Kavanaugh. “Women, I feel, were in many ways stronger than the men in this fight,” the president said. “Women were outraged at what happened to Brett Kavanaugh. Outraged.”
But while the brawl over Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation may be over, people on both sides of the debate agree that it will have lasting ramifications on the Senate, the Supreme Court and the nation. The Kavanaugh confirmation, playing out against the backdrop of a midterm election where control of Congress is at stake, gave Republicans what they believe is momentum to ensure they keep their Senate majority. Republicans are now painting Democrats and their activist allies as angry mobs; Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, delivered a speech on Saturday assailing what he called “mob rule,” while the majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, told reporters that “the virtual mob that has assaulted us in this process has turned our base on fire.”
As the senators entered their final hours of debate on Saturday, hundreds of Kavanaugh opponents were massed on the steps of the Supreme Court. They later rushed the barricades around the Capitol and sat on its steps, chanting “No means no!” as Capitol Police officers began arresting them. Women and sexual assault survivors around the country were furious, feeling as though their voices had not been heard. The bitter nomination fight, coming in the midst of the #MeToo movement, also unfolded at the volatile intersection of gender and politics. It energized survivors of sexual assault, hundreds of whom have descended on Capitol Hill to confront Republican senators. But it also left many feeling dispirited, as though their elected representatives have not heard their voices. And in the end, it challenged Americans’ faith in the Supreme Court as an institution that is above politics.
[Confirming Kavanaugh: A triumph for conservatives, but a blow to the court’s image.] Washington had not seen such a brutal nomination fight — Mr. Cornyn called it a “cruel and reckless and indecent episode” — since 1991, when the law professor Anita F. Hill accused then-Judge Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her. Senators of both parties wondered aloud how the chamber, and the nation, will heal.
Inside the chamber, protests erupted as Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, delivered a speech deploring “mob rule” — a reference to the activists and sexual assault survivors who have roamed the Capitol in recent weeks, confronting Republican senators. “I stand with survivors!” one shouted. “This process is corrupt!” “The road that led us here has been bitter, angry and partisan — steeped in hypocrisy and hyperbole and resentment and outrage,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor, minutes before the vote, adding, “When the history of the Senate is written, this chapter will be a flashing red warning light of what to avoid.”
Even some of Judge Kavanaugh’s future colleagues sounded unsettled. On Friday, on the eve of the vote, two of them — Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — expressed concern that the partisan rancor around his nomination would injure the court’s reputation. Saturday’s vote reflected that fury, with the Capitol Police dragging screaming demonstrators out of the gallery as Vice President Mike Pence, presiding in his role as president of the Senate, calmy tried to restore order. “This is a stain on American history!” one woman cried, as the vote wrapped up. “Do you understand?”
“Part of the court’s strength and part of the court’s legitimacy depends on people not seeing the court in the way that people see the rest of the governing structures of this country now,” Justice Kagan said in an appearance at Princeton University. “In other words, people thinking of the court as not politically divided in the same way, as not an extension of politics, but instead somehow above the fray, even if not always in every case.” The final result was expected; all senators had announced their intentions by Friday. Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia was the lone Democrat to support Judge Kavanaugh. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — the lone Republican to break with her party — was recorded as “present” instead of “no” as part of an agreement with a colleague, Senator Steve Daines of Montana, who was attending his daughter’s wedding and would have voted “yes.”
Once confirmed, Judge Kavanaugh will shift the ideological balance of the court to the right, giving it a solid conservative majority. He will replace the Justice Kennedy, a moderate conservative who was its longtime swing vote, and at 53 he is young enough to serve for decades, shaping American jurisprudence for a generation, if not more. By voting present, Ms. Murkowski spared Judge Kavanaugh the indignity of being confirmed by a single vote. The last time a justice was confirmed by that margin was in 1881, when Stanley Matthews was confirmed 24 to 23. Justice Thomas was confirmed by a four-vote margin.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, was unequivocal about what Republicans had accomplished. Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation fulfills a long-held dream of conservatives, who have waged a decades-long campaign to remake the high court. In replacing Justice Kennedy, a moderate conservative for whom he once served as a clerk, he will give the court a reliably conservative bloc. At 53, he is young enough to serve for decades, shaping American jurisprudence for a generation, if not more.
Mr. McConnell was unequivocal about what Republicans had accomplished.
“It is the most important contribution we have made to the country that will last the longest,” Mr. McConnell said in an interview, ticking through two Supreme Court justices and 26 federal appeals court judges confirmed in the last two years.“It is the most important contribution we have made to the country that will last the longest,” Mr. McConnell said in an interview, ticking through two Supreme Court justices and 26 federal appeals court judges confirmed in the last two years.
For Mr. Trump, who has made stocking the federal judiciary with conservatives a signature of his presidency, Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation will fulfill a campaign promise in the middle of a difficult midterm election. He is already using Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation process to energize his base; at a recent rally, he fired up his supporters by mocking Christine Blasey Ford, the Northern California research psychologist who accused Judge Kavanaugh of trying to rape her when they were teenagers. From the moment Mr. Trump nominated Judge Kavanaugh in July, Democrats made defeating his nomination their singular mission. Mr. Schumer vowed he would oppose Judge Kavanaugh “with everything I’ve got.” Democrats raised questions about his partisan past — he worked on the investigation that led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment and for the George W. Bush White House — and his judicial philosophy.
Until Dr. Blasey went public, Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation seemed assured. But her account — first in an article in The Washington Post and later in riveting testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee — unleashed a cascade of other allegations and prompted a last-minute F.B.I. inquiry into the judge’s conduct. They warned that he would overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, and raised questions about his expansive view of executive power, which they regarded as troublesome given that Mr. Trump is the subject of investigations into his conduct. They also questioned his truthfulness about his role in several partisan episodes.
But until Dr. Blasey went public, Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation seemed assured. Her account — first in an article in The Washington Post and later in riveting testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee — unleashed a cascade of other allegations and prompted a last-minute F.B.I. inquiry into the judge’s conduct.
Judge Kavanaugh vigorously denied the allegations in his own angry and emotional testimony before the Judiciary Committee. On Saturday, one of his accusers, Deborah Ramirez, who has said Judge Kavanaugh thrust his genitals in her face during a drunken dormitory party at Yale, issued a statement deploring what was about to happen.Judge Kavanaugh vigorously denied the allegations in his own angry and emotional testimony before the Judiciary Committee. On Saturday, one of his accusers, Deborah Ramirez, who has said Judge Kavanaugh thrust his genitals in her face during a drunken dormitory party at Yale, issued a statement deploring what was about to happen.
[If you want to save your nomination, Judge Kavanaugh was told, show how you really feel.]
“Thirty-five years ago, the other students in the room chose to laugh and look the other way as sexual violence was perpetrated on me by Brett Kavanaugh,” she wrote. “As I watch many of the senators speak and vote on the floor of the Senate I feel like I’m right back at Yale where half the room is laughing and looking the other way. Only this time, instead of drunk college kids, it is U.S. senators who are deliberately ignoring his behavior. This is how victims are isolated and silenced.”“Thirty-five years ago, the other students in the room chose to laugh and look the other way as sexual violence was perpetrated on me by Brett Kavanaugh,” she wrote. “As I watch many of the senators speak and vote on the floor of the Senate I feel like I’m right back at Yale where half the room is laughing and looking the other way. Only this time, instead of drunk college kids, it is U.S. senators who are deliberately ignoring his behavior. This is how victims are isolated and silenced.”
As it did for the past week, the Senate debate on Saturday turned as much on Judge Kavanaugh’s own conduct during his Senate testimony as it did on questions of the law. In the Senate hearing, he called Dr. Blasey’s allegations “a calculated and orchestrated political hit” and directed barbed comments at his Democratic questioners. As it did for the past week, the Senate debate on Saturday turned as much on Judge Kavanaugh’s own conduct during his Senate testimony as it did on questions of the law. Democrats deplored his fiery rhetoric — he called Dr. Blasey’s allegations “a calculated and orchestrated political hit” and directed barbed comments at his Democratic questioners — as the language of someone who was unfit for the nation’s highest court.
“I had concerns at the very beginning of this process, and I fear it more than ever at the end of the process,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said on the Senate floor. “Any remaining hope that Judge Kavanaugh could be trusted to be an impartial justice or perceived to be an impartial justice was shattered by his opening statement at his last hearing.”“I had concerns at the very beginning of this process, and I fear it more than ever at the end of the process,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said on the Senate floor. “Any remaining hope that Judge Kavanaugh could be trusted to be an impartial justice or perceived to be an impartial justice was shattered by his opening statement at his last hearing.”
But Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, who held the floor for a time overnight on Saturday, said those who would question Judge Kavanaugh’s demeanor “certainly didn’t see the same thing I saw, which is someone who was seeking sincerely to defend his own record of public service, his own private conduct against great adversity, in circumstances in which he and his family have been dragged through the mud by no choice of their own.” Republicans cast him as a man unjustly accused, who was trying to defend himself. Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, said those who would question Judge Kavanaugh’s demeanor “certainly didn’t see the same thing I saw, which is someone who was seeking sincerely to defend his own record of public service, his own private conduct against great adversity, in circumstances in which he and his family have been dragged through the mud by no choice of their own.”
While the brawl over Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation may be over, people on both sides of the debate agree that it will have lasting ramifications on the Senate, the country and the court. Even some of the judge’s future colleagues sounded unsettled. On Friday, on the eve of the vote, two of them — Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — expressed concern that the partisan rancor over his nomination would damage the high court’s reputation.
“Part of the court’s strength and part of the court’s legitimacy depends on people not seeing the court in the way that people see the rest of the governing structures of this country now,” Justice Kagan said in an appearance at Princeton University. “In other words, people thinking of the court as not politically divided in the same way, as not an extension of politics, but instead somehow above the fray, even if not always in every case.”