Retiring senator joined fellow Republicans in 2016 to obstruct Garland confirmation
WASHINGTON, DC—Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the U.S. Senate’s senior member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, met with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Wednesday.
Representing President Trump’s second Supreme Court nomination, Kavanaugh is expected to face a tougher than usual nomination process. His would be the 15th time Hatch has participated in the selection of a new justice for the nation’s highest court.
According to a press statement released by Hatch’s Washington office, the senator “offered Judge Kavanaugh advice on navigating the confirmation process, including what to expect from certain members of the Judiciary Committee, how to handle certain types of questions, and how to prepare for hearings.”
Numerous Senate Democrats have expressed concerns with Kavanaugh’s nomination, including questioning the judge’s vision of expansive executive power at a time when President Trump is under intense scrutiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller III’s office on a number of criminal and counterintelligence matters that could lead the nation toward a constitutional crisis, impeachment proceedings against Trump and more.
Democrats have also expressed a desire to hold off on confirming Justice Anthony Kennedy’s replacement—the Supreme Court associate justice announced his retirement at the end of June—until after the November midterms. Kavanaugh was nominated by the president on Monday.
By Tuesday, Hatch took to the Senate floor and proclaimed, “I intend to do everything in my power, Mme. President, to see Judge Kavanaugh confirmed to the Supreme Court. I could not be more pleased that one of my final acts here in the United States Senate will be to help shepherd through one last nominee to our nation’s highest court. And I could not be more pleased that that nominee is Judge Brett Kavanaugh.”
Hatch was not so enthusiastic in 2016 during the last year of President Barack Obama’s presidency when Chief U.S. Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland, of the District of Columbia Circuit, was nominated to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February of that year at a Texas resort.
Like most of his GOP colleagues at the time, he urged his fellow senators not to even consider Garland’s nomination until after the 2016 presidential election.
“Despite my personal affection for Merrick, I remain convinced that the right way for the Senate to do its job is to conduct a confirmation process after this contentious presidential election season is over,” Hatch said in a statement released almost seven months before Trump won the presidency.
The senator added at the time that by withholding a vote on President Obama’s nominee, it was “to preserve the integrity of the Supreme Court.”
Democrats are now using Hatch and other GOP leaders’ own past statements against them and urging a pause in the current Supreme Court nominating process until after the mid-term elections. Some political pundits predict this election could swing one or both houses of Congress to Democratic control.
What’s more, Hatch is set to retire, a new senator for Utah replacing him after the upcoming election. This means the senator is advocating confirming a nominee who will likely have enormous impacts on American jurisprudence and society long after the senator is gone from public life. This contradicts what the senator advocated during Garland’s 2016 nomination.
Hatch and other GOP senators’ partisan gambit worked and Neil Gorsuch was nominated to Scalia’s former seat on the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh’s pending confirmation would bend the Supreme Court rightward, putting into play a number of issues dear to conservatives, including repealing Obamacare and ending a woman’s right to an abortion.
The Supreme Court could also eventually be asked to decide President Trump’s fate should Mueller seek a grand jury subpoena or a criminal indictment against him. President Trump has also signalled a willingness to pardon himself, something no other American president in history has done. The constitutionality of such an act by Trump could also be decided by the Supreme Court.
Despite these issues and Hatch’s own contradictory statements, the senator gushed this week over Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“Judge Kavanaugh understands the proper role of the judiciary and will faithfully honor the Constitution,” Hatch said in a prepared statement. “That’s why I will lift heaven and Earth to see that he is confirmed. In the weeks to come, I will fight every day to ensure that Judge Kavanaugh receives a fair hearing. I have no doubt that he will serve our nation honorably on the Supreme Court.”
Fellow Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), himself briefly mentioned in press reports as a contender for Trump’s latest court pick, said he would likely confirm Kavanaugh, though Lee’s exuberance didn’t quite match Hatch’s.
“I look forward to the process in the Senate, getting to know Judge Kavanaugh and his family better in coming months, and, hopefully, voting to confirm him to the Supreme Court in the fall,” he said in a press statement.