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PORTLAND, Maine – The end of contentious confirmation hearings for US Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh has focused attention on potential votes, such as US Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine.
If Collins votes yes, then he is probably confirmed. She and Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski are likely to vote "no" for Kavanaugh to be blocked.
In keeping with her deliberative approach, Collins has been silent about how she will vote. Yet she sent signals that Kavanaugh broke through an obstacle by telling him that Roe v. Wade establishing the right to abortion is an established law. A spokesman for Collins said that Kavanaugh's recently published e-mail – in which he disputed that lawyers generally consider Roe as settled – did not change the senator's mind as to what he told him.
The pressure is intense.
Democrats argue that President Trump chose Kavanaugh to vote against Roe v. Wade. Liberal groups broadcast television ads encouraging the senator to reject the nomination.
People from across the country mailed about 3,000 hangers to his office, which symbolized the abortions practiced in the alley before they became legal.
And activists have pledged to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund an opponent to Collins if it votes in favor of the president's appointment. She must be re-elected in 2020.
Collins, a centrist who fought the GOP to dump the Affordable Care Act, usually has to be on the hot seat.
"I'm still waiting for the hearings to be over before making a decision, and I'll do that too," she said in an interview.
Collins, for her part, follows the same process she used with John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, both appointed by the GOP, as well as Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, Democratic candidates.
"I voted for Sotomayor justice, and I also voted for Alito justice," she said, referring to judges outside the ideological spectrum. "I respect the fact that one of my jobs is to determine whether or not the candidate is qualified for court, has the required experience and has the judicial temperament, as well as respect for precedence," she added. .
Although she never voted against a Supreme Court candidate, Collins vowed to reject a hostile candidate at Roe v. Wade. She said that Kavanaugh had told him during their face-to-face meeting that he considered the 1973 decision as an established legal precedent.
But Kavanaugh said in a 2003 email while working for the administration of President George W. Bush, some jurists might consider the idea of precedent differently and that the Supreme Court "can always reverse its precedent". did not reflect his personal opinions, but "what the lawyers could say".
In Durham, Mindy Woerter said that she had gone to Washington to meet with Collins and tell her about an abortion she had had because the fetus she was carrying had a fatal anomaly.
"We must ensure that this right is preserved in the future," she said. "Many people in Maine would be disappointed if she decided to vote for Kavanaugh."
Collins insists that she always decides. She said that she was surprised when many groups reacted reflexively against the appointment of Kavanaugh without sufficient consideration.
"I was shocked when many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle took a stand on the candidate even before his identity became known. It's amazing, she said.
External observers recall when all senators took a more deliberative approach. "There is a lot to like in this kind of process," said Mark Brewer, a professor at the University of Maine.
Collins, who can not be re-elected until 2020, voted last month to keep funding for Planned Parenthood a day after the same organization rallied to Washington to encourage him to vote against Kavanaugh. On Thursday, the group sent letters to his office in Bangor.
"I learned not to wait for a thank you," Collins said.
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