Retired Justice Stevens changes mind-- now feels Kavanaugh is not fit for Supreme Court
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens departs the funeral of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia
at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, February 20, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Stevens, 98, said he started out believing that Kavanaugh deserved to be confirmed, “but his performance during the hearings caused me to change my mind.”
Some critics have argued that Kavanaugh’s highly partisan remarks so compromised his ability to appear politically fair-minded that he would be forced to recuse himself on many cases to preserve the court’s integrity.
Stevens said he, too, has come to believe that Kavanaugh, a U.S. appellate judge, “demonstrated a potential bias involving enough potential litigants before the (high) court that he would not be able to perform his full responsibilities.”
Stevens, a lifelong Republican and appointee of President Gerald Ford spoke at an event hosted by a Palm Beach Post reporter. Stevens acknowledged praising Kavanaugh and one of his rulings on foreign campaign contributions in his 2014 book “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution.”
Speaking to an audience of retirees in Boca Raton, Florida, Stevens, 98, said he started out believing that Kavanaugh deserved to be confirmed, “but his performance during the hearings caused me to change my mind.”
Stevens cited commentary by Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe and others suggesting Kavanaugh had raised doubts about his political impartiality when he asserted that sexual misconduct accusations he faced stemmed from an “orchestrated political hit” funded by left-wing groups seeking “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.”
Some critics have argued that Kavanaugh’s highly partisan remarks so compromised his ability to appear politically fair-minded that he would be forced to recuse himself on many cases to preserve the court’s integrity.
Stevens said he, too, has come to believe that Kavanaugh, a U.S. appellate judge, “demonstrated a potential bias involving enough potential litigants before the (high) court that he would not be able to perform his full responsibilities.”
“I think there’s merit in that criticism, and that the senators should really pay attention to it for the good of the court. It’s not healthy to get a new justice who can only do a part-time job,” Stevens said.