On the recordJuly 10, 2018
last night the President of the United States announced that Brett Kavanaugh is his choice to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court left by the impending retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. I was glad to have the occasion to join the President and others at the White House last night, and I could not be more pleased with the President's choice. Now that the President has performed his duty under the Constitution, it now falls to us to do our duty. The appointments clause to the U.S. Constitution says that subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, the President shall appoint members of the Supreme Court, among other officials. The President has done his job, and now it falls to the U.S. Senate to do our job under the Constitution of the United States. We have all learned a little bit more about the nominee in just the few hours since his nomination. Of course, we know he is a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit--what some have called the second highest court in the land. By that, they mean that because it sits in the District of Columbia, many important cases involving the U.S. Government go up through that court as opposed to courts in Texas or Indiana or other places around the country. For more than 10 years, he has served in that capacity. We know he has had a distinguished academic and legal career.…
