Just one in three Americans has a lot of confidence in the Supreme Court following Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation. That’s more people than think Kavanaugh told the truth: Just one in four believe Brett was completely honest before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
That means that 75 percent of Americans believe the Senate confirmed a Supreme Court justice after he committed a crime in front of them. Here’s the oath the Senate Judiciary Committee uses for folks testifying:
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you will give at this time will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
To be clear, lying to the Senate would be a crime even if Kavanaugh weren’t under oath. No doubt that’s part of why just 35 percent approve of Kavanaugh’s confirmation while 43 percent disapprove.
If consistently terrible numbers weren’t enough, high-profile figures in law and policy continue to voice their concerns about Kavanaugh’s presence on the court.
“I think most of the American people were not in favor of his being on the Supreme Court,” said former President Jimmy Carter when speaking to students at Emory University this week. On a more personal note, Carter added that while Kavanaugh seemed legally qualified, “I think he did attack [Dr. Ford] sexually and I know that I saw him lose his cool.”
What does all this mean? Kavanaugh will not be normalized. The cloud over his head? It’s here to stay. For that, the Supreme Court will suffer.
The resistance to Kavanaugh—in quality, quantity, and consistency—is remarkable. When’s the last time you bumped into poetry about a Supreme Court justice?
Kavanaugh is not doing anything to help himself. On his first day of oral arguments he asked questions better suited to an unrefined law student participating in a mock trial than a Supreme Court justice.
Justices often pose hypotheticals, detailed grammatical questions bearing on statutory interpretation, and comparisons to other cases and statutes. They may nudge an attorney to explore an argument or to respond to the opposing party’s argument. What they don’t do is argue the case for the attorneys before them. Until Kavanaugh.
So, next question: What does Kavanaugh mean politically? Well, let’s start with this: Trump wants to run on Kavanaugh.
The right’s making a huge deal of how Kavanaugh’s their golden ticket and will help them sweep the midterms. Not so fast.
Trump isn’t even keeping Republicans behind him. There’s even a GOP women’s PAC backing Democratic candidates.
Trump’s Kav-heavy strategy may galvanize his voters, but they’re a minority of the country. Republicans have been relying on percentage mobilized versus percentage of the electorate for two decades. This time around, Trump’s trying to energize his voters with something that may have an even greater activating effect on Democratic voters.