President Trumphas picked Brett Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court justice nominee.
The president announced Kavanaugh was his pick for the high-court bench late Monday night.
This will be Trump’s second high-court pick; he nominated thetypically conservative Neil Gorsuchin July 2017 to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia following his death.
Here’s what you need to know about Trump’s nominee:
Kavanaugh is a “DC insider”
Now a federal appeals court judge in Washington D.C., Kavanaugh grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, and went to the Georgetown Preparatory School — the same high school as President Trump’s first nominee,Neil M. Gorsuch. Kavanaugh earned both his undergraduate and law degrees at Yale University. He later served a law clerk to retiring Justice Kennedy in 1993. In fact, Kennedy also swore Kavanaugh into the federal appeals court.
He is a father of two
The 53-year-old nominee has two daughters with his wife, Ashley. Kavanaugh is a coach for his daughters’ basketball teams, and the family of four is active in their local Catholic church, theNew York Timesreported.
Chris Maddaloni/Roll Call/Getty Images
He helped impeach President Bill Clinton
The judge worked with independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr on the investigation that led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. At the time, Kavanaugh wrote in a report to Starr that President Clinton should be impeached both for “lying to his staff and misleading the public,”theNew York Timesreported.
But he later seemingly reversed his opinion, according to theTimes, writing that presidents shouldn’t have to deal with criminal investigations or civil lawsuits while in office.
He has ties to the Bush family
Kavanaugh served as the White House lawyer and staff secretary toPresident George W. Bush. His wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, was President Bush’s personal secretary.
The relationship has prompted concern from both sides of the aisle that Kavanaugh may be too partisan.
Conservatives worry he is not quite conservative enough
There is debate over Kavanaugh’s stance on abortion, as he never directly confronted the issue as a judge.
He recently dissented in an appeals court decision that allowed an undocumented pregnant teen to get an abortion, but his dissent did not go so far as tosay choosing to have an abortion is unconstitutional, according to Politico.
Kavanaugh’s stance on the Affordable Care Act is also concerning to conservatives, as the judge dissented from a D.C. Circuit decision upholding the act for technical and jurisdictional reasons.
source: people.com
