High Stakes on the High Court: Justice Hanging in the Balance

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York for the time today to address this august body.

Let me first compliment the gentlewoman from Washington, D.C., Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a true legal scholar, a legal patriot, and a fighter for justice throughout her life.

Mr. Speaker, I want to issue this quote to you: ``No President has ever consulted more widely or talked with more people from more backgrounds to seek input about a Supreme Court nomination.''

Mr. Speaker, those were the first words spoken by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, introduced to the American people during President Trump's prime-time reality show announcement this past Monday night.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to voice my deep concerns regarding the President's nomination of Judge Kavanaugh for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States of America. It is more than a little disquieting that the first thing to come from a newly named Supreme Court nominee's mouth was a demonstrably false statement claiming that the search to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy was one of the most far-reaching and thorough in the history of the republic.

The truth is, Mr. Speaker, that President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh from a preapproved list of prospective right-wing ideologue nominees prepared by the extremist Heritage Foundation, in consultation with the cultish right-wing Federalist Society, each of those nominees having been certified as having passed the Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation litmus test on overturning Roe v. Wade and striking down critical protections in our current healthcare system.

Just 10 days after Justice Kennedy announced his retirement, Judge Kavanaugh makes the absurd statement that no President has ever consulted more widely or talked with more people from more backgrounds to seek input about a Supreme Court nomination.

We have come to expect knowing false Trumpian statements from the President's employees, his doctor, communications directors, his press secretaries, but not from a nominee for the branch of government designated to be a check on his administration.

In just a few words, Judge Kavanaugh aligned himself with the likes of erstwhile press secretary Sean Spicer, who claimed that Trump's inauguration crowd was larger than Obama's. He put himself in the same league with the disgraced doctor who felt it necessary to tell the world the spurious claim that the President was the healthiest human being in world history.

That a distinguished Federal appellate judge felt the need to debase himself with obvious untruths just moments after his nomination to the highest court in the land was announced should cause each and every one of us to fear that a Justice Kavanaugh would willingly prostrate himself before a demanding President if called upon to do so.

Moreover, each and every one of us has good cause to believe that the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh is a blatant attempt by President Trump to dominate the judiciary.

A President with the power and the predisposition to place his heavy hand on the delicate scales of justice would inevitably lead our dear Nation to the precipice of a constitutional crisis. That is why it is of such concern to me that nominee Kavanaugh felt it necessary to flatter this insecure President during their prime time reality show at the White House last week.

In Washington, we talk a lot about the balance of powers, but at home, in Georgia, we feel it. We feel the 5-4 Shelby decision striking down important parts of the Voting Rights Act. We feel Roe v. Wade guaranteeing women the right to choose. We feel Citizens United. And we feel Brown v. Board of Education. We recall the power of the courts to decide so much more than individual cases. We have seen its ability to change the course of history. When one considers the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, we know firsthand that the U.S. Supreme Court can turn the American Dream into the American nightmare.

Without digressing, I must point out that to conclude that a sycophantic debut is where Judge Kavanaugh's problems begin and end would be dangerously naive. The briefest of examinations of his record reveals numerous positions contrary to the values held by most Americans.

He has opposed EPA protections, workers' rights, consumer protections, and the right to choose. And his personal statements call to question his ability to be an independent check on the President, such as his declarations that investigations of presidents should be deferred while that president is in office, and his opinion that a sitting president is immune from criminal charges.

These statements should be particularly troubling for all Americans, as the Supreme Court may soon be called upon to consider whether President Trump can be subpoenaed to appear before a Federal grand jury, or whether a sitting president can be indicted. Our democracy will need an unbiased and principled Supreme Court functioning at its finest, with due respect for the rule of law, when that time comes, and a justice who has prejudged, as Judge Kavanaugh has, would jeopardize that responsibility.

To avoid any appearance of impropriety, the Senate should not consider a Supreme Court appointment from a president who is under the cloud of investigation for conspiracy to violate the law and the obstruction of that investigation. Judge Kavanaugh's statements clearly make him suspect, and his confirmation would undermine the credibility of the Nation's highest court and impugn that court's ability to protect public confidence in the rule of law.

With this cloud hanging over Judge Kavanaugh's nomination, it is necessary that the Senate refrain and keep with its tradition and follow the McConnell rule. Elections are less than 4 months away and we should allow the American people to speak at the ballot box before the Senate is asked to confirm a nominee for the highest court in the land. The delay would help ensure that Justice Kennedy's replacement is free from suspicion and bias and the inability to appreciate balance of powers concerns.

Judge Kavanaugh has gone beyond his clear proclivity for being an activist judge out of line with the rest of the country. He has revealed himself to be beholden to another branch of government, which would imperil our Constitution's delicate balance of powers.

Americans deserve a United States Supreme Court justice who is up to the task of protecting the rule of law without fear or favor, and, unfortunately, Judge Kavanaugh's appointment is ill-considered, ill- timed, and should not move forward.

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