Judge Brett Kavanaugh is not only qualified to sit on the Supreme Court but is at the “top of the stream,” the American Bar Association told senators Friday, delivering a powerful statement of support for President Trump’s nominee.
The ABA also shot down Democrats’ charges that there was a pattern of conservative bias in the judge’s rulings.
“If there is a pattern to the decisions … what we saw was an allegiance to the law, a dedication to looking at the facts of each particular case and applying that law to the facts,” said John Tarpley, the ABA’s principal evaluator in its review of Judge Kavanaugh.
The ABA has given the judge its highest rating of “unanimously well-qualified” for the Supreme Court seat.
Democrats in the past have labeled the ABA rating the “gold standard” for evaluating judicial picks — but pushed back against their rating for Judge Kavanaugh.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democrat, said the ABA’s evaluation didn’t look at the amicus briefs in the cases that came before the judge during his 12 years on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Mr. Whitehouse said an evaluation of those filings would show the judge is biased toward Republican corporate interests.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.