Baker Concerned about Vetting Trump Supreme Court Nominee On Abortion Precedent

Apparently, Republican Governor Charlie Baker thinks it's worthwhile to vet Brett Kavanaugh's record on supporting Supreme Court precedent on a women's right to choose to have an abortion, Roe v. Wade.

Gov. Charlie Baker reacts to President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

ACLU:

Brett Kavanaugh's One Abortion Case

In October 2017, I went to court to stop the Trump administration from blocking a young immigrant from obtaining an abortion. She had crossed into the United States the month before and discovered she was pregnant soon after. She never had any doubt about what she wanted to do. But the Trump administration had other plans for her.

Her plea, which I relayed to a three-judge appeals panel, was: “Please stop delaying my decision any longer.” That panel included Judge Brett Kavanaugh, and her plea went unheeded.

In the only abortion case heard by President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Kavanaugh issued a decision that would have forced Jane to further delay her abortion, almost a full month after she first sought it. Ultimately, the full appeals court reversed his decision, ending the government’s obstruction in the dramatic case.

While Judge Kavanaugh’s decision was cause for concern when it was issued last year, it’s taken on far more importance now, given his nomination to the high court and the clues it provides about how he might shift the course of reproductive rights in this country. Although the ACLU neither endorses nor opposes Supreme Court nominees, we do have an obligation to analyze Kavanaugh's judicial record on areas that impact core civil liberties and civil rights. read more

voxdotcom:

Democrats are resorting to FOIA requests to vet Brett Kavanaugh: They’re going this route after getting stonewalled by Republicans.

Senate Democrats pushed back with FOIA requests on Wednesday against Republicans’ refusal to obtain documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s time as staff secretary during the George W. Bush administration, members of the Judiciary Committee said.

FOIA, or Freedom of Information Act requests, enable any member of the public to ask for records from federal government agencies. They are often used by journalists to obtain records from different agencies, although businesses, nonprofits, and law firms have been known to leverage this tool as well, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.

Judiciary Committee Democrats are adopting this approach to get records from Kavanaugh’s stint as staff secretary. As part of the push, they’ve submitted their FOIA requests to the National Archives, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Central Intelligence Agency. Democrats have asked for expedited processing of this request, and called for a response from the National Archives about their request within 10 calendar days. A spokesperson for Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment. read more