UPDATED: Kavanaugh hearing: Trump's nominee will pledge to be 'a neutral and impartial arbiter'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post

By John Wagner
September 4 at 9:05 AM

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on Tuesday plans to tell the Senate Committee weighing his nomination to the Supreme Court that he will be "a neutral and impartial arbiter" if confirmed, according to excerpts of his opening statement.

"I don't decide cases based on personal or policy preferences," Kavanaugh says in the excerpts, released by the White House on Tuesday.

"I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge," Kavanaugh says. "I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge."

The excerpts were released about two hours before the scheduled 9:30 a.m. start of Kavanaugh's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to be contentious.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kavanaugh-hearing-trumps-nominee-will-pledge-to-be-a-neutral-and-impartial-arbiter/2018/09/04/5fbaec1a-b035-11e8-9a6a-565d92a3585d_story.html

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UPDATE:

Kavanaugh Gives Merrick Garland A Shout Out In Opening Statement

By Kate Riga
September 4, 2018 8:22 am

In excerpts from an opening statement emphasizing his own impartiality and desire to be a "team player," Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh name-drops Merrick Garland, whose lack of seat on the bench is still a sore spot for many Democrats.

"I have served with 17 other judges, each of them a colleague and a friend, on a court now led by our superb chief judge, Merrick Garland," Kavanaugh will say at the opening of the confirmation hearings Tuesday morning.

In the statement, he also goes out of his way to emphasize his neutrality.

"A good judge must be an umpire--a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy," he says in the prepared statement. "I don't decide cases based on personal or policy preferences. I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge."

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/kavanaugh-gives-merrick-garland-a-shout-out-in-opening-statement

[janterry]

1. waste of time listening to this mess

everyone knows where he stands on most issues.

[Iliyah]

2. Lie

[Eyeball_Kid]

3. Lying is the great tradition of GOP operatives. Kavanaugh is a pro.

Think nothing of it. Kavanaugh knows how to lie. He's a master, just like Trumpy. But he'll bamboozle no one. They all know it's theatre. There will be no rebel GOPers who will flip and deny him confirmation. Kavanaugh's lying will not be a factor. The only factor that matters is that the GOP holds the POWER, and they will use it.

I hope I'm wrong.

[Roy Rolling]

4. I'm waiting...

When is the part about "I will not decide cases involving someone who nominates me" gonna be said? Is that in there, too? Because about 200 million Americans are interested in that, as well as the 30% of hardcore Trumplicans who depend on Kavanagh to go easy on them.

[FBaggins]

7. That one won't be coming

SCOTUS judges decide for themselves when they have a conflict and should step aside. You'll never hear one promise that they won't hear cases involving the President who nominated them. The closest they will come is a promise to recuse themselves whenever they think they have a conflict of interest.

[bettyellen]

28. They should bring up how GOPers have refused to recuse

[FBaggins]

29. DNCers do too

There aren’t any points to be won there.

In fact... I think they could come back by pointing out that While neither Nixon nor Clinton’s scotus appointees refused themselves in the relevant appeals... Nixon’s votes against him.

[bettyellen]

30. What liberal judges had a financial interest in cases they should have recused on?

[FBaggins]

31. Financial interest?

We were talking about judges recusing themselves from cases involving the president who appointed them.

[bettyellen]

32. Recusing when it's a conflict of interests, especially when there's a financial component- like

Thomas and his wife have so often had.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Tainted with illegitimacy for all time

by the crooked election, the crooks who stole it, the crooks in Congress who permit this charade

Illegitimacy never plays well in America over the long haul

[malthaussen]

6. Oh, well, that's settled, then.

After all, he promised.

-- Mal

[bitterross]

8. Yes, I belive that will happen. Said no one with a brain.

It's clear, he can lie in his hearings, the GOP will confirm him, and he'll be on the court for life.

[FSogol]

9. Wow, he's already lying!

That didn't take long.

[appal_jack]

10. He's definitely an R-biter...

This must surely be a transcription error in the original source. I think Kavanaugh was using shorthand for being the Repub-biter that he certainly is...



-app

[forgotmylogin]

11. "emphasizing his own impartiality" Uh huh.

He tried to slow-walk Jane Doe's abortion.

By the time of Judge Kavanaugh’s ruling, the Trump administration had already delayed Doe’s abortion by almost a month. The decision allowed the government to continue to obstruct her abortion while the government looked for a sponsor for Jane, which they had been unsuccessful in finding for the prior month and a half. As Judge Millett put it, there was no “reason to think that a sponsor” could be found in “short order.” As a result, Judge Kavanaugh’s order would force Doe to delay her abortion for “multiple more weeks.”

https://www.aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom/abortion/brett-kavanaughs-one-abortion-case

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

14. Rachel covered this in detail Monday night.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

Choose the segment, "Kavanaugh behavior on bench suggests opposition to Roe v. Wade"

[forgotmylogin]

17. Yep!

[cp]

12. Lifelong partisan hack

Impartial, my ass.

[haele]

13. Did his nose grow longer when he said that?

"Pro Law judge".

Let's see the trend of his "neutral rulings", based on corporate standing and socio-political gender and racial lines of the litigants.
Then rate them along the policies of, say, the Federalist Society, the ACLU, and other "political movement" think tanks along the conservative/liberal lines.
Let's count how many times his opinions have been on the losing side of a hearing, how many of his rulings have been appealed and overturn.

You'll find he always twists his rulings to the conservative side.

What a liar.

Haele

[dalton99a]

15. Kavanaugh is a lying asshole and a card-carrying wingnut

[turbinetree]

16. Sheldon Whitehouse nailed this current right wing court and this Federalist Society asshole

[barbtries]

18. he's a liar

of course; he's a republican.

i feel such dread with this and if he's confirmed feel determined to get him off the court as an illegitimate pick. this cannot stand. thomas has committed impeachable crimes and should be thrown off. gorsuch's seat was stolen!

my hatred toward republicans and this so called president as almost as boundless as their greed and hypocrisy.

[GoCubsGo]

19. And, to anyone who believes that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale with your name on it.

[ut oh]

20. I trust that just about as much...

as I trust that tRump won't golf at all the rest of his term....

[yurbud]

21. the partisanship of conservatives on the court has been beyond dispute since Bush v. Gore

[rockfordfile]

22. Does anybody really trust him? Hell no.

[louis-t]

23. Lying piece of shit.

[Mc Mike]

24. Lying nazi pig.

Like Alito, Roberts, Gorsuch.

[Doitnow]

25. I don't know about anyone else, but I would be totally ashamed of being chosen

for the Supreme Court by the likes of 45. What a horrid recommendation!

[jrthin]

26. LIAR! nt

[Eliot Rosewater]

27. Liar, filthy fucking lying piece of trash

starting to piss off real patriots now.

[HumblePi]

35. Oh Whew!

Phew! (wiping the sweat off my forehead) I'm so relieved that we're allowed to use %#%# words unfit for the ears of children here. Like many others, my frustrations go deep these days and letting loose with the f-bomb is actually a relief valve for my brain.

I was just given a stern warning at another political forum yesterday for referring to a Trump supporter as a 'knucklehead'. Good, now I can say 'fucking knucklehead' here without being admonished like a 10 year old child. Oh yes, and the reason I called this guy a knucklehead is because he referred to me a 'twat' and a 'moron'. He must have been one of the mods.

[Snellius]

33. 'a neutral and impartial arbiter' misses the point. What is the law?

Supreme Court is not like any other court. Most courts must decide whether certain actions break the law. SC does not decide the guilt or innocence but interprets whether the law itself in constitutional or not. The law itself is on trail. For Kava to say he will be 'a neutral and impartial arbiter' is really saying nothing. He is not arbitrating. He is interpreting.

[HumblePi]

34. Things Are Looking Dire

Things are looking pretty grim for Democrats. Brian Kavanaugh's confirmation is pretty much a done deal. It's still so unbelievable to me that a massive number of Republicans can be so controlled. Even those few Republicans that I used to be able to say 'yeah, he's pretty middle of the road and fair' have sold out their ideals and integrity for the sake of their own survival and the party. It's a very dark time in our history for sure, but my biggest fear is that it looks as though they've won and it's very unclear what the future holds.

Once Kavanaugh steps inside the Supreme Court chambers, Donald Trump gets a 'get out of jail free' card. Kavanaugh believes that a president is immune from criminal charges and can't be indicted. Even for non-legal minds like the majority of us, we still believe that no one is above the law. But that belief is slowly fading away. The premise that no sitting president can be indicted is a signal that we've officially become an autocracy.

So if people out there in our country are worried that the SC will overturn Roe v Wade, which it will, they should be aware there's something even worse to dread, that's another six years of Trump.