President Donald Trump has just announced his second pick to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh:
President Donald Trump has picked Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge with extensive legal credentials and a lengthy political record, to succeed Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
“Judge Kavanaugh has impeccable credentials,” Trump said, shortly after announcing his choice Monday night. “Throughout legal circles, he is considered a true judge’s judge.”
Kavanaugh, 53, is an ideological conservative who is expected to push the court to the right on a number of issues including business regulation and national security. The favorite of White House Counsel Donald McGahn, Kavanaugh is also considered a safer pick than some of the more partisan choices who were on the president’s shortlist. Trump called him one of the “sharpest legal minds of our time.”
“There is no one more qualified for this position, and no one more deserving,” Trump said, calling for “robust bipartisan support” and a “swift” confirmation in the Senate.
In accepting his nomination Monday night, Kavanaugh praised Kennedy as well as his parents. HIs father was a lawyer, and his mother was a judge.
In his remarks, the Supreme Court nominee said he would rigorously interpret the Constitution as written. He called an independent judiciary “the crown jewel of our republic.”
“A judge must interpret the law, not make the law,” Kavanaugh added.
A graduate of Yale Law School who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh has the traditional trappings of a presidential nominee to the high court.
If confirmed, the appellate judge would become the second young, conservative jurist Trump has put on the top U.S. court during his first term. Kavanaugh’s confirmation would give the president an even bigger role in shaping U.S. policy for decades to come. The potential to morph the federal judiciary led many conservatives to support Trump in 2016, and he has not disappointed so far with the confirmation of conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and numerous federal judges. (source)
Interestingly, in a Congressional hearing from 2006, he also said that he would support Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case which legalized abortion:
Senator Schumer. I fail to see the distinction. Let me ask you to answer, since my time is ending here, the two other questions. Do you consider Roe v. Wade to be an abomination? And do you consider yourself to be a judicial nominee, like the President said he was going to nominate people, in the mold of Scalia and Thomas?
Mr. Kavanaugh. Senator, on the question of Roe v. Wade, if confirmed to the D.C. Circuit, I would follow Roe v. Wade faithfully and fully. That would be binding precedent of the Court. It’s been decided by the Supreme Court–
Senator Schumer. I asked you your own opinion.
Mr. Kavanaugh. And I’m saying if I were confirmed to the D.C. Circuit, Senator, I would follow it. It’s been reaffirmed many times, including in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. (source)
You can watch the transcript here.
This man’s view on abortion is NOT Catholic. The Catholic Faith is against murdering babies. He said he supports it. The willful murder of the innocent- which abortion falls under- is one of the four sins which cry out to Heaven for vengeance along with homosexuality, the oppression of the widow and orphan, and the depriving of a man of his justly earned wages.
There is no middle ground on this issue. Either one supports this or one does not.
Some news sources claim that he opposes the LGBT. That is yet to be seen, and especially if he will suddenly “change” his opinion if given the office.
Something that is disturbingly consistent with American “Catholic” Supreme Court Justices is that for the most part they are not Catholic at all, or if they do practice, their adherence to the zeitgeist comes before the practice of their Faith. In this way they are no different than Protestants, for the Protestant Revolution beginning with Luther made good citizenship and adherence to the social ethos of the time synonymous with religious piety. Ethics are good, but only so far as they align with morality. While one should not strive to be unethical, it is possible to be unethical but moral. Likewise, one also must avoid being immoral in the name of being ethical.
The fact that he supports infanticide – so far as one can tell based on past experience- is a warning sign.
Has he changed? We do not know. Even if he says he has changed, given the ability of American justice nominees and politicians to completely change their position in the name of holding on to what power they have or may obtain is a consistent problem.
Nobody really knows what this man is thinking or going to do.
There have been many scandals with the Catholic Church in America. The largest one is arguably not the sex abuse scandal -not to diminish the seriousness of it- but the utter inconsistency of the members of the Church in public authority for the last century to practice the faith they claim to adhere to, and with that the refusal of the great majority of bishops in the USA to attempt to censure them.
There are some bishops who have tried, and some priests also, to speak out and do what they can in what are often times limited roles or actions which incur the wrath of their superiors. These people are to be commended. I do not criticize them.
What I speak of here is a systemic problem that is known and discussed in serious Catholic circles because it is a public scandal. One could even say that it gave rise to the sexual abuse crisis because in so far at the matter pertains to cleaning out priests and bishops who abuse their office, the refusal to eliminate the predators who entered into the ranks of the clergy has destroyed the social credit of the Church, encouraged millions of people to stop practicing their Faith, and hurt the lives of countless numbers of people. Many of the Catholic Faithful who care can testify that in light of this scandal, they have felt a sense of disorientation and confusion as they try to make sense of their Faith in their lives and a world that is becoming hostile towards them.
American Catholicism has earned a poor enough reputation, especially over the last two decades because of these sins and to that, the refusal of the average man in the Church to practice his Faith in public, likewise bowing down to the idol of Americanism and the heresy of pursuing power, wealth, and gain over the practice of his faith. It does not need another “Catholic” Supreme Court Justice who even would seem to be questionable in his practice of the faith, for as with so many “Catholics” having rejected the fundamental tenets of faith and morality and thus not being Catholic, such an appointee only serves to sully the name of people who are Catholic and in spite of their sins and personal faults really do believe and work to live the Faith they claim to practice.