Supreme Court confirmation hearings: Brett Kavanaugh tries to end hearing on positive note amid chaos of repeated protests
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Donald Trump’s latest Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has declared at his Senate confirmation hearing that the court “must never, never be viewed as a partisan institution.” But that was at the end of a marathon day marked by rancorous exchanges between Democrats and Republicans, including dire Democratic fears that he would be the president's advocate on the high court.
The week of hearings on Mr Kavanaugh's nomination began with a sense of inevitability that the 53-year-old appellate judge eventually will be confirmed, given the Republican majority in the Senate.
However, the first of at least four days of hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee began with partisan quarrelling over the nomination and persistent protests from members of the audience, followed by their arrests.
Follow the latest updates from the first day of the hearing here:
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Strong Democratic opposition to Mr Trump's nominee reflects the political stakes for both parties in advance of the November elections, Robert Mueller's investigation of Mr Trump's 2016 campaign and the potentially pivotal role Mr Kavanaugh could play in moving the court to the right.
Democrats, including several senators poised for 2020 presidential bids, tried to block the proceedings in a dispute over records of Mr Kavanaugh's time working for former President George W Bush being withheld by the White House. Republicans in turn accused the Democrats of turning the hearing into a circus.
Mr Trump jumped into the fray late in the day, saying on Twitter that Democrats were “looking to inflict pain and embarrassment” on Mr Kavanaugh.
The president's comment followed the statements of Democratic senators who warned that Mr Trump was, in the words of Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, “selecting a justice on the Supreme Court who potentially will cast a decisive vote in his own case.”
In Mr Kavanaugh's own statement at the end of more than seven hours of arguing, the federal appeals judge spoke repeatedly about the importance of an independent judiciary and the need to keep the court above partisan politics, common refrains among Supreme Court nominees that had added salience in the fraught political atmosphere of the moment.
Associated Press
Welcome to live updates from The Independent of the first day of Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
The conservative judge is set to face stiff questioning from Democratic senators on his legal philosophy ahead of his likely ascension to the highest court in the United States.
Mr Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court has already proved controversial and polling suggests the US public is as divided as it has been in decades over a pick for the court:
Why are Democrats concerned?
Many Democratic senators have already announced their intention to vote against Mr Kavanaugh's nomination and liberals are concerned with the judge's record on issues such as women's rights and gun control.
However, what is key is that Mr Kavanaugh would replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, a judge who was a swing voter in many recent Supreme Court rulings.
This would tilt the balance of the nine-judge court in favour of conservatives by five to four - and with Supreme Court judges given a lifetime tenure, America could be pushed to the right for decades on Mr Kavnaugh's ascension.
Opposition from Democrat senators to the nomination is unlikely to matter unless Republicans decide to rebel as the GOP holds a majority in the senate.
Democratic senate leader Chuck Schumer has complained that he and colleagues received 42,000 pages of documents about Mr Kavanaugh’s years with the Bush administration on Monday evening, hours before hearings get underway.
How could this affect the Russia probe?
Despite working on the team that investigated Bill Clinton in the 1990s, Mr Kavanaugh has long held the view that sitting presidents should be shielded from intrusive probes.
This expansive view of executive power is particularly important now given the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Senators are expected to grill Mr Kavanaugh over key legal questions such as: “Can the president be subpoenaed to appear before Mueller?” and: “Is the president immune from prosecution?”
“It is an unavoidable question,” says Democratic senator for Delaware Chris Coons. “Did this president choose you because of your view of presidential power?”
Human rights organisation the Leadership Conference has sent a letter signed by more than 180 campaign groups, including the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Humanist Association, calling senators to reject Mr Kavanaugh's nomination.
Unfamiliar with the process by which new Supreme Court judges are appointed? Our guide tells you everything you need to know about how the system works.
The Republican party has said on Twitter the Democrats have “no legitimate reason to swiftly confirm Judge Kavanaugh” as a Supreme Court justice:
However, Democratic senator for Illinois, Dick Durbin, wants thorough scrutiny of the judge's record:
Torture and surveillance issues
Some questioning during the four-day hearing is expected to revolve around the issue of Bush-era policies for detaining and interrogating terror suspects.
Testifying before the Senate 12 years ago, Mr Kavanaugh said he wasn't directly involved in drafting the controversial policies while working in the former president’s administration.
But a short time later, news accounts suggested he had discussed in the White House how the Supreme Court would view such policies.
Several Democrats questioned his honesty at the time and questions surrounding the issue are likely to resurface this week.
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