More Obstruction: Democrats Demand Millions of Documents on Judge Kavanaugh

Judge Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit after being nominated by President Bush in 2003. It took all the way until 2006 to confirm him due to the heavy scrutiny that included two Senate hearings levied against the Bush appointee. As Tom Jipping wrote in the National Review,

[Judge Kavanaugh] also spent “four years in private practice, one year in the Office of the Solicitor General, four years in the Office of Independent Counsel, two years in the White House Counsel’s Office, and three years as staff secretary to President Bush.” 

Judge Kavanaugh is a Yale Law school graduate and has taught at Yale, Georgetown and Harvard Universities. Even the left-leaning American Bar Association gave the Judge its highest qualification in 2006. One could argue there has never been a nominee with more exposure than Kavanaugh over the past decade of his work. Yet this is still not nearly enough information according to Senate Democrats. They want millions, yes millions, of documents. The USA Today explains just how unusual this search really is.

Senators have begun the deepest dive ever into the writings of a Supreme Court nominee, digging into a record 1 million-plus pages of legal opinions and emails from Brett Kavanaugh's career as a federal judge, White House attorney, and assistant to the prosecutor who investigated former President Bill Clinton.

The massive volume of Kavanaugh's records dwarfs those of the last two Supreme Court justices to be confirmed – Neil Gorsuch and Elena Kagan. Senators reviewed about 182,000 pages of documents on Gorsuch and about 170,000 pages on Kagan.

Even with the unique volume of documents the Senate already has on Judge Kavanaugh, Democrats even want more.

Despite the mound of electronic paper that senators will soon get on Kavanaugh, Democrats and Republicans are battling over whether they should have access to more as they debate the merits of President Donald Trump's nominee.

The fight centers on whether senators should see emails and other documents from Kavanaugh's time as staff secretary to former President George W. Bush, from 2003-2006.

Tom Jipping points out that this is pure obstruction.

Unfortunately, many of Kavanaugh’s critics have already announced their opposition, some even before President Trump announced his selection. That makes their demand for documents and other material unrelated to Kavanaugh’s judicial service more than a little odd. Obviously, the information will have no effect on their position. 

So here’s the current state of confirmation play: Senators and groups that already oppose Kavanaugh are demanding access to the least relevant part of his record, much of which was available during the extensive scrutiny he faced for his appeals-court appointment. If that’s not obstruction for its own sake, what is?

The RNLA has always supported a proper vetting process for every judicial nominee, particularly one for the highest court in the United States. However, in this case it is obvious to any objective observer that the current tactics used against Judge Kavanaugh are a politically motivated obstructionist strategy. Unfortunately, the nation and the integrity of our judicial system is being harmed as a result.