“Like a kid procrastinating his homework—playing video games and microwaving Bagel Bites—they are looking for any distraction at all to avoid actually analyzing Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial record. That’s because Democrats know what they’ll find when they do: a nominee who is indisputably qualified for the Supreme Court.”
Washington, DC— Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the senior member and former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke on the Senate floor in support of the President’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. In today’s remarks Hatch discussed the great lengths the left has gone to in order to avoid engaging with Judge Kavanaugh’s lengthy judicial record, including an article in which progressive legal scholars analyzed his college-age sports reporting for a Yale school newspaper to look for signs as to how he might rule on hot button cases before the bench.
He also discussed bad-faith attempts from the left to mislead their base about common committee processes in the confirmation process.
“It should go without saying that if you really want to understand Judge Kavanaugh’s view on the constitutional separation of powers, you won’t find it by reading sports articles from a college newspaper, and you won’t find it by reading his wife’s work emails—you’ll find it by reading Judge Kavanaugh’s actual opinions as a federal judge.
Of course, Democrats know this. But like a kid procrastinating his homework—playing video games and microwaving Bagel Bites—they are looking for any distraction at all to avoid actually analyzing Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial record. That’s because Democrats know what they’ll find when they do: a nominee who is indisputably qualified for the Supreme Court.”
Senator Hatch’s full remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be found below:
Now I’d like to pivot to what would ordinarily be a subject unrelated to sports – the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. But this is no ordinary nomination. Not only is Judge Kavanaugh an avid sports fan; he also moonlighted as a sports reporter for the Yale Daily News. For Democrats looking to evaluate Judge Kavanaugh on the basis of documents other than his judicial record, his writings about college sports are apparently a gold mine.
Take, for example, Kavanaugh’s account of a midseason game between Yale and Cornell: “In basketball, as in few other team sports, it is possible for one person to completely dominate a game.” Prominent legal scholar Laurence Tribe, a Harvard Law professor and adviser to Barack Obama, strained to make a connection between this casual observation and Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial philosophy. He noted, “Kavanaugh’s seeming fascination with single-player domination might be a muscular view of executive power.” I had a good laugh at this. The idea that Judge Kavanaugh’s observations about basketball somehow reveal his views about executive power is beyond absurd.
What’s next, Mr. President? What other hidden insights into the nominee’s character can we glean from the most obscure sources? Should we do a deep dive on Judge Kavanaugh’s zodiac sign to see what it might say about his judicial temperament? He’s an Aquarius by the way, and Mars is in retrograde, so we all know what that means: Judge Kavanaugh is going to destroy America. He’s going to burn down the Capitol, coronate himself king, and make confetti of the Constitution.
The stars have literally aligned for this man to usher in Armageddon. The real question is, how am I the only one seeing this? And why hasn’t The New Yorker written a think piece about it already?
It should go without saying that if you really want to understand Judge Kavanaugh’s view on the constitutional separation of powers, you won’t find it by reading sports articles from a college newspaper, and you won’t find it by reading his wife’s work emails—you’ll find it by reading Judge Kavanaugh’s actual opinions as a federal judge.
Of course, Democrats know this. But like a kid procrastinating his homework—playing video games and microwaving Bagel Bites—they are looking for any distraction at all to avoid actually analyzing Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial record. That’s because Democrats know what they’ll find when they do: a nominee who is indisputably qualified for the Supreme Court.
When my friends on the other side of the aisle decide they are done procrastinating, I would point them to Judge Kavanaugh’s opinions in three cases I highlighted here on the Senate floor earlier this month: Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Loving v. Internal Revenue Service, and PHH Corporation v. CFPB.
Now once you’ve gone through Judge Kavanaugh’s highly regarded opinions and sterling record and concluded, like I have, that he is eminently qualified and possesses the judicial temperament to be a Supreme Court Justice, then by all means turn to his college sports writing for a little light reading. You’re sure to walk away with insight into the championship prospect of Yale’s basketball and football teams in the 1980s. I just wouldn’t hold out for any insight into his judicial philosophy.
While we’re on the subject of documents outside his judicial record, I’m surprised Democrats have yet to mention Professor Kavanaugh’s student evaluations. The evaluations may not predict how Judge Kavanaugh would rule on hot button issues, but they do add actual substance to the mountain of evidence that Judge Kavanaugh is, as 80 of his former students described him, “a rigorous thinker, a devoted teacher, and a gracious person.”
Notably, the evaluations reveal that Judge Kavanaugh was fair and balanced in the classroom – the opposite of the partisan hack some are now trying to make him out to be. One student wrote that “Judge Kavanaugh’s presentation seemed very evenhanded.” Another said that he “presented the other side quite well, even though he likely shared most of those conservative views,” adding that “many of the Harvard Law School professors could learn from his acceptance of views across the political spectrum.”
I’m looking forward to Judge Kavanaugh’s public confirmation hearings – now just 12 days away – where his judicial record on substantive legal issues will take center stage. That is what matters. But those things that are not front and center – be they his student evaluations or college sports reports – remind us that there is more to Judge Kavanaugh than his professional record and accomplishments. And they remind us that he is exactly the kind of standup person we should want on the Supreme Court.
Of course, you wouldn’t guess that judging by the way Democrats and the media have treated him over the last few weeks. For example, earlier this week, one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle said she would cancel her meeting with the nominee, which of course she is free to do. What media reports ignored was that this same senator had announced her resolute opposition before any nominee was even announced. Talk about jumping the gun.
In an effort to stir up social media controversy, another colleague of mine suggested in dark and gloomy terms that the Judiciary Chairman’s use of committee confidentiality was some nefarious tool to hide salacious details about the nominee. In doing so, he neglected to inform the tens of thousands who retweeted his misleading message that committee confidentiality is, in fact, a common practice that has been used by past chairmen from both parties.
Before our friends in the media report these disingenuous claims, they should apply rigorous fact-checking to see if Democrats are telling the truth or simply crying wolf to whip up their base.