After fight that split U.S., Kavanaugh
wins place on Supreme Court
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[October 08, 2018]
By Richard Cowan, Amanda Becker and David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
Republican-controlled U.S. Senate on Saturday confirmed Brett Kavanaugh
to the Supreme Court, dismissing anger over accusations of sexual
misconduct against him and delivering a major victory to President
Donald Trump who has now locked in a conservative majority on the court.
By a vote of 50-48, the deeply-divided Senate gave the lifetime job to
Kavanaugh, 53, after weeks of fierce debate over sexual violence,
alcohol abuse and his angry response to the allegations that convulsed
the nation just weeks before congressional elections on Nov. 6.
Kavanaugh will help take the highest U.S. court to the right, perhaps
for many years, and his confirmation is a bitter blow to Democrats
already chafing at Republican control of the White House and both
chambers of the U.S. Congress.
Conservatives will now have a 5-4 majority in any future legal battles
on contentious issues such as abortion rights, immigration, transgender
rights, industry regulation, and presidential powers.
Adding to a dramatic day on Capitol Hill, women protesters in the Senate
gallery shouted "Shame on you!" and briefly interrupted the vote.
Another group of protesters stormed toward the doors of the nearby
Supreme Court building with raised fists. Police stood guard at the
doors.
Kavanaugh was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts shortly after the
vote.
Kavanaugh's nomination blew up into a personal and political drama when
university professor Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexually
assaulting her in the upstairs bedroom of a home in a wealthy suburb of
Washington in 1982.
Two other women accused him in the media of sexual misconduct in the
1980s.
Kavanaugh fought back against the accusations, denying them in angry and
tearful testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that was viewed
live on television by around 20 million people.
Trump, who called Kavanaugh to congratulate him on Saturday, said he was
"100 percent" certain that Ford named the wrong person in accusing the
judge.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to a campaign
rally in Kansas, Trump said of Kavanaugh: "We’re very honored that he
was able to withstand this horrible, horrible attack by the Democrats."
Michael Bromwich, a lawyer for Ford, said in a tweet that Kavanaugh's
confirmation capped, "A week that will live in infamy for the U.S.
Senate, permanently diminishing its stature."
A few Republican senators who had wavered over whether to vote for
Kavanaugh finally backed him this week, saying they did so in part
because a brief FBI investigation found no corroborating evidence of
Ford's accusations.
Democrats said the FBI probe was nowhere near wide enough.
Trump watched the vote on a large-screen television tuned to Fox News in
a wood-paneled cabin on the plane. He flashed two thumbs up when the
final vote was declared and aides on board applauded.
The Senate confirmation allows him to hit the campaign trail ahead of
the congressional elections saying that he has kept his 2016 promise to
mold a more conservative American judiciary.
At a political rally in Mississippi on Tuesday, Trump mocked Ford's
account of what she says was a drunken attack on her by Kavanaugh when
they were teenagers.
For weeks, senators from both parties decried the harsh and often
emotional rhetoric in the clash over Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court
judge with a history of advancing Republican causes.
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Judge Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in as an Associate Justice of the
U.S. Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts as Kavanaugh's wife
Ashley holds the family bible and his daughters Liza and Margaret
look on in a handout photo provided by the U.S. Supreme Court taken
at the Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S., October 6, 2018.
Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United
States/Handout via Reuters
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, dismissed
the prospect of lingering bitterness among senators. "These things
always blow over," he told a news conference.
WOMEN PROTESTS
Hundreds of protesters against Kavanaugh gathered on the grounds of
the Capitol and at the Supreme Court. A total of 164 people were
arrested in the protests, U.S. Capitol Police said.
Residents of a townhouse near the Washington home of Senator Susan
Collins, a moderate Republican whose backing helped get Kavanaugh
over the line on Saturday, flew the flag of the lawmaker's home
state Maine upside down in protest.
Accusations against Kavanaugh energized the #MeToo social media
movement that emerged after high-profile accusations of sexual
assault and harassment by men in politics, the media and the
entertainment industry.
Democrats said Kavanaugh's partisan defense of himself, in which he
said he was victim of a "political hit," was enough itself to
disqualify him from the court.
The dispute over Kavanaugh has added fuel to campaigning for the
elections in November when Democrats will try to take control of
Congress from the Republicans.
Several polls show that Republican enthusiasm about voting, which
had lagged behind, jumped after the Kavanaugh hearing last week.
McConnell told Reuters that the political brawl over Kavanaugh will
help Republicans at the ballot box.
"Nothing unifies Republicans like a court fight," McConnell said in
an interview ahead of the vote. "It's been a seminal event leading
into the fall election."
But Democrats hope women angered at the Kavanaugh accusations will
turn out in large numbers to reject Republicans.
During Saturday's vote, senators were showered with cries of "We
will not forget," and “Survivors vote” from protesters in the Senate
gallery.
Democrats must gain at least two Senate seats and 23 House seats at
the elections to claim majorities in each chamber, enabling them to
block Trump's agenda and investigate his administration. The
Democrats are seen as having more chance of winning control of the
House of Representatives than the Senate.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate
Judiciary Committee, said on Twitter: "Confirming Brett Kavanaugh in
the face of credible allegations of sexual assault that were not
thoroughly investigated, and his belligerent, partisan
performance...undermines the legitimacy of the Supreme Court."
Kavanaugh succeeds retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was often
the decisive swing vote on social issues.
The showdown over Kavanaugh had echoes of current Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas' contentious confirmation hearings in 1991
involving sexual harassment allegations lodged against him by a law
professor named Anita Hill.
(Reporting by Amanda Becker, Richard Cowan and David Morgan;
Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson and David Brunnstrom in
Washington and Roberta Rampton on Air Force One; Editing by Alistair
Bell)
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