Following the announcement by Chairman Arlen Specter that the Senate Judiciary Committee would hold a second hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas had the following statement:
“Holding a second hearing on Kavanaugh is the right thing to do. There were just too many unanswered questions. At his first hearing and in his response to subsequent questions posed by senators, Kavanaugh provided incomplete and evasive answers. And since that hearing a number of controversial administration policies have been disclosed and traced back to the White House Counsel’s office during his tenure there, including the NSA warrantless wiretapping program, the authorization – later repudiated by the Justice Department – of interrogation tactics verging on torture, and the controversial policies on ‘enemy combatants.’
“The committee was obligated to hold another hearing. Now that it has agreed to do so, it must demand answers to senators’ questions. The hearing will be a test for those Republican senators who demanded answers and documents from Harriet Miers concerning her work in the Bush administration but have been willing to give Kavanaugh a pass. The committee has a real opportunity to fill in the blanks on a nominee whose record raises red flags. But if it doesn’t demand answers from Kavanaugh to senators’ questions, then the second hearing will have been a sham, intended merely to provide the illusion that the Senate is fulfilling its “advise and consent” responsibility.
PFAW opposes the confirmation of Kavanaugh based on his known record and lack of experience. Our report on his nomination is available here.