Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) attempted to appeal to Brett Kavanaugh's sense of principle and decency in Tuesday's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, thus far to no avail. Only a tiny portion of the documents in Kavanaugh's 35 months of work for then-President George W. Bush have been released to senators and even fewer made public. Kavanaugh is relying on this cover up of his record in his confirmation. That's a problem for Durbin, and symbolic of the overall problem of this president putting forward this nomination.
"You are the nominee of President Trump," he reminded Kavanaugh. "This is a president who has shown us consistently that he is contemptuous of the rule of law.… There are many of us who are concerned about the future of this country and democracy." He continued his appeal. "If you believe that your public record is one you can stand behind and defend," Durbin told Kavanaugh, "I hope that at the end of this you will ask this committee to suspend until we are given all the documents. … If your effort today continues to conceal and hide documents, it raises suspicion."
Durbin isn't the only one concerned about the legitimacy of this confirmation. Here's Laurence Tribe, professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University, appealing directly to Kavanaugh in a tweet: "This confirmation hearing is a barely concealed cover-up, bordering on illegimacy [sic]. In his heart, Judge Kavanaugh must know that. My unlikely hope: if the steamroller can’t be slowed, maybe the judge—whom I like personally—will find the experience eye-opening and chastening."
In other words, Kavanaugh would join Neil Gorsuch as a justice with a big ol' asterisk by him name: nominated by an illegitimate president. But Kavanaugh has the added baggage of being an active participant in a massive cover-up.
Every Democratic senator must announce their opposition to Kavanaugh's confirmation immediately. Use this tool to tell your senators—Democratic and Republican—to oppose this confirmation.
