Brett M. Kavanaugh

            My VIP for this week is President Donald Trump nominee to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. The President announced on Monday, July 9, 2018, that Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh is his nominee for the Supreme Court seat.

            Kavanaugh has much in his favor. He is only 53 years old, which means that he could be on the court for more than 30 years. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and a former law clerk to Justice Kennedy in 1993. He served as a lawyer at the White House and as staff secretary under President George W. Bush. He was nominated by President Bush to the federal appeals court in the District of Columbia. He has issued about 300 opinions in his 12 years as a judge as well as many legal articles and speaking engagements. In his announcement President Trump said the following of Kavanaugh.

Throughout legal circles he’s considered a judge’s judge [and] one of the sharpest legal minds of our time.

Judge Kavanaugh has devoted his life to public service. There is no one in America more qualified for this position and no one more deserving.

            Nicole Darrah at Fox News shares the following quoted and paraphrased bits of information about Kavanaugh to help us get to know him better.

. He worked with independent counsel Kenneth Starr in the investigation that led to President Clinton’s impeachment for his affair with Monica Lewinsky and co-wrote the report in the 1990s.

. No one knows how Kavanaugh would rule on abortion because he “has never directly ruled on abortion as a judge” or made public statements of favoring the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

. He is close to George W. Bush and family. Bush said that he nominated Kavanaugh to the federal appeals court “because of the force of his mind, the breadth of his experience and the strength of his character.”

Bush said Monday that Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh was “an outstanding decision.” “Brett is a brilliant jurist who has faithfully applied the Constitution and laws throughout his 12 years on the D.C. Circuit. He will make a superb Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.”

. Kavanaugh gives credit to his mother for his choice of careers. She taught high school history and then returned to school to obtain a law degree. She later became a prosecutor and a judge in Maryland.

“She’s instilled in me a commitment to public service and a respect for the rule of law that I’ve tried to follow throughout my career.”

. He is an avid runner and has completed the Boston Marathon twice.

. He gives a lot of community service. He coaches his daughters’ basketball teams, tutors children at an elementary school in D.C., volunteers for Catholic charity groups, and is active in his Catholic church.

            All of this information sounds good to me. I hope that he is also a constitutionalist who will follow the law of the Constitution in his rulings.