[ad_1]
WASHINGTON – A deeply divided Senate voted Saturday to uphold Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh in the Supreme Court, handing over a victory to President Trump and ending a fierce battle in Washington, which began in the form of a "clean sweep". a debate on ideology and jurisprudence and which ended with questions of sexual misconduct.
Judge Kavanaugh was sworn in quickly by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Retired Judge Anthony M. Kennedy at a private ceremony.
Mr. Trump exulted on Twitter. "I applaud and congratulate the US Senate for confirming our GREAT APPOINTMENT, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the United States Supreme Court," he wrote.
The Senate vote was 50 to 48, almost entirely by party. Things went wrong – the protesters interrupted the proceedings several times, the Capitol police dragging screaming protesters out of the podium as senators sat somberly at their wooden desks in the room downstairs. "It's a stain on American history!", Exclaimed a woman as the vote ended. "Do you understand?"
Although the fight around Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation may be over, both sides of the debate agree that it will have lasting consequences for the Senate, the Supreme Court and the nation.
As senators began their last hours of debate on Saturday, hundreds of Kavanaugh opponents gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court. Later, they rushed to the barricades around the Capitol and sat on its steps, chanting "No, that's no!", As Capitol police officers began arresting them. Women and survivors of sexual assault across the country were furious, feeling as if their voices had not been heard.
[[[[Confirm Kavanaugh: a triumph for the conservatives, but a blow to the image of the court.]
Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, delivered a speech in which he denounced the "crowd rule" – a reference to activists and survivors of sexual assault who wandered the Capitol over the last few weeks, confronted to Republican senators. "I stand beside survivors!" Shouted one of them. "This process is corrupt!"
Even some of Kavanaugh's future colleagues seemed disturbed. On Friday, on the eve of the vote, two of them – Judge Elena Kagan and Judge Sonia Sotomayor – were worried that the partisan rancor surrounding her appointment would damage the court's reputation.
"Part of the strength and legitimacy of the court lies in the fact that people do not see it the same way as the other ruling structures in this country," Judge Kagan said at a court appearance. at Princeton University. "In other words, people do not think that the court is not divided politically in the same way, nor as an extension of politics, but rather above the fray, even if it is not the same. is not always in all cases. "
Once confirmed, Judge Kavanaugh will change the ideological balance of the court, giving it a solid conservative majority. He will replace Justice Kennedy, a moderate Conservative who has voted for a long time, and at age 53, he is young enough to serve for decades, shaping American jurisprudence for a generation, if not more.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the leader of the majority, was unequivocal about what the Republicans had accomplished.
"This is the largest contribution we have made to the country and will last the longest," McConnell said in an interview. Two judges of the Supreme Court and 26 judges of the Federal Court of Appeal have confirmed these last two years.
For Mr. Trump, who has made the Conservative Constitution into the Federal Judicial Power the signing of his presidency, Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation will keep his election promise in the midst of a difficult mid-term election. He is already using Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation process to revitalize his base; at a recent rally, he fired his supporters by making fun of Christine Blasey Ford, a psychologist-researcher in Northern California, who accused Judge Kavanaugh of attempting to rape her while they were teenagers.
Until Dr. Blasey was made public, Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation seemed assured. But his story – first in an article in The Washington Post and later in a captivating testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee – sparked a cascade of other allegations and sparked a last-minute request from F.B.I. investigation of the judge's conduct.
[[[[If you want to keep your candidacy, Judge Kavanaugh was told, show what you really feel.]
"Thirty-five years ago, the other students in the room chose to laugh and look away as Brett Kavanaugh explained the sexual violence," she wrote. "Watching many senators speak and vote in the Senate, I feel like I'm back in Yale, where half of the room is laughing and looking on the other side. Only this time, instead of students drunk in college, it is the US senators who deliberately ignore his behavior. This is how the victims are isolated and silenced. "
As in the past week, Saturday's Senate debate focused as much on the conduct of Justice Kavanaugh in his testimony before the Senate as on questions of law. During the Senate hearing, he described Dr. Blasey's allegations as a "calculated and orchestrated political coup" and sent harsh comments to his Democratic interlocutors.
"I had concerns at the very beginning of this process and I fear it more than ever at the end of the process," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, in the Senate. "The last statement he made in his last statement broke with all hope that Judge Kavanaugh still had to be trusted to be considered an impartial judge or perceived as such."
But Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, who spoke for one night on Saturday, told those who would question Judge Kavanaugh's behavior "certainly do not see the same thing as me." I have seen, to know someone who sincerely seeks to defend his own past public service background, his own private conduct in the face of great adversity, in circumstances in which he and his family were dragged into the mud without any choice from them. "
Nicholas Fandos and Catie Edmondson contributed to the report
[ad_2]
Source link
