Wednesday round-up

With Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing set for next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, more information about the hearing emerges, including that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican of Ohio, and Lisa Blatt, a Supreme Court litigator, will introduce the nominee. Melissa Quinn of Washington Examiner has coverage.

Both support for and and criticism of Kavanaugh also continue to mount. Paul Bedard of Washington Examiner reports that “Kavanaugh’s ties to the Catholic Church and his dedication to faith and family are being singled out for praise” in two letters sent to the committee. An additional letter of support comes from Kavanaugh’s Yale Law School classmates; Jenna Lifhits has coverage for the The Weekly Standard. In an op-ed for National Review, Jay P. Lefkowitz writes that Kavanaugh “has the qualities we most admire and seek in judges. He is smart, thoughtful, impartial, discreet, empathetic, and principled.”

At Rewire.News, S. E. Smith discusses a 2007 opinion of Kavanaugh’s that “suggests Kavanaugh might not rule favorably on cases surrounding bodily autonomy, from coerced sterilization to denial of transition care.” In his column for The Washington Post, Richard Cohen argues that Kavanaugh “owes [Monica] Lewinsky an apology” because “he and his colleagues went after [her] as if she were an atomic spy.”

Igor Bobic of Huffington Post reports that progressive groups are launching a new campaign called #WhipTheVote “aimed at urging senators to get off the fence and state whether they will support Brett Kavanaugh.” Commentary criticizing Democratic efforts to forestall or defeat the nomination comes from Guy Benson at Townhall and William McGurn in The Wall Street Journal. In the most recent episode of the Heritage Foundation’s SCOTUS 101 podcast, Elizabeth Slattery and Tom Jipping preview the hearing.

High-profile cases may be on the way for the Supreme Court’s October Term 2018. Kevin Daley of The Daily Caller reports that a North Carolina case challenging the practice of partisan gerrymandering “could force the justices to confront the issue” that “the high court – led by [Chief Justice John] Roberts – effectively dodged” last term. Lyle Denniston of Constitution Daily covers a case on the legality of third parties selling access to recorded programming, which could be “significant test in the Digital Age of the legal theory that excuses copying that otherwise could violate copyright law.” Steven Mazie of The Economist discusses the “permutations [that] would ultimately trigger appeals and requests for emergency relief from the Supreme Court” concerning DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which “provides undocumented immigrants who arrived in America as children and meet other requirements renewable two-year reprieves from deportation and permits to work legally.”

Briefly:

• At Crime and Consequences, Kent Scheidegger responds to Rory Little’s post for this blog on Kavanaugh’s record in criminal cases.
• For the ABA Journal, Mark Walsh looks at “the new role the chief justice will assume when the court returns for a new term Oct. 1—median justice. That’s the court member at its ideological center.”

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