All posts tagged "brett kavanaugh"

Susan Collins' disastrous debate gaffe revealed she was 'in on the lie': ex-GOP operative

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) insists Brett Kavanaugh never lied to her about Roe v. Wade, and an ex-GOP strategist thinks he knows why.

Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt seized on the exchange in a Wednesday episode of "The Warning," a day after Collins faced Democratic challenger Troy Jackson in a debate. The moderator asked Collins whether Kavanaugh, who called Roe "settled law" before his confirmation vote, had lied to her.

"I do not feel that he lied, but I think that he should not have said it was settled law because to me that meant that it would not be overturned," Collins answered. "But to be fair, you cannot ask a nominee how he might vote on some hypothetical future case."

Schmidt said that was the rare moment Collins told the truth.

"And that, for once, from the hand-wringing, letter-writing Susan Collins, is the truth," Schmidt said. "Because she was in on the lie."

He argued Collins and Kavanaugh "had the same fundamental position" and that the senator's "entire public legacy" now rests on ending a right American women would still have if she had lost a race in time.

Schmidt contrasted Collins with Margaret Chase Smith, the Maine Republican senator remembered for standing on principle during a dangerous era. Collins, he said, is the "complete opposite."

"She's a kneeling MAGA sycophant who appeased a fascist for power, who sold out her people, her state, her country, and betrayed her oath, and is addicted to her Senate seat like a junkie in the street," Schmidt said.

He also mocked Collins for touting her success in getting "concrete, pulp, and road salt removed from the tariff list," summing up her pitch as "let them eat rock salt." Jackson made the same point onstage, telling voters, "We can't eat road salt."

Jackson also compared Collins to "an arsonist who helped set the fire, and then she wants credit for bringing a cup of water to put it out," noting she votes with President Donald Trump 96 percent of the time.

"It doesn't matter if she stands with him in public," Schmidt said. "She stands with him in the back room, and everybody knows it."

He added, "Mainers, vote her out."

Gasps as only conservative Supreme Court justices attend Trump's state dinner

President Donald Trump invited three conservative Supreme Court justices to his state dinner hosting Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which prompted outcry.

On Thursday, multiple reporters pointed out that Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts were expected to attend the dinner. The New York Times reported the full guest list, which featured more than 130 guests and included Tech titans like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman and Tim Cook.

"I guess Trump wasn't that p— about birthright citizenship or well this is an open bribe," reacted legal expert and journalist Marcy Wheeler, who runs the "emptywheel" podcast and blog. "You decide."

Wheeler was referring to Trump's anger at the court for voiding his executive order ending birthright citizenship. The state dinner also comes only ten days after Roberts, Barrett, and Kavanaugh sided with a majority that halted Trump's March executive order seeking to require the U.S. Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters listed on new federally compiled "State Citizenship Lists."

Trump called the dissenting conservative justices that he appointed "shells" beholden to "crazed" liberal interests in a lengthy online post in which he mentioned the Supreme Court's Birthright Citizenship decision as well.

"Republicans are totally in bed [with] dictators, especially communist dictators," lamented journalist Daniel Morcate. "Publicly, however, they pretended to be anti-communist."

"Ouch. They couldn't get the marquis guests so they're reduced to the seat fillers of SCOTUS justices," jabbed professor and publisher Robert Rutledge. "Might as well be inviting Congressional staffers."

The state dinner doesn't mark the first time they've attended a Trump state dinner featuring a foreign leader. All six conservatives, including Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, showed up for an April state dinner hosting King Charles III.

However, Thomas and Alito were left off the guest list, even though Trump praised them in his post. The guest list also left off the three liberal justices.

'Catastrophic': Supreme Court justice's alliance with Trump alarms political operative

A political operative sounded the alarm on a Supreme Court justice whom he believes is President Donald Trump's chief enabler.

During an episode of Court of History, journalist and former senior Clinton White House advisor Sidney Blumenthal explained the thinking behind a recent article he wrote for The Guardian about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

"When you look beneath the surface, and you see certain dissents and statements and opinions, you find that Kavanaugh is playing an instrumental key role on Trump's key issues," Blumenthal said. "And he's really the most politically attuned, the one who is acting most like a political operative, and the results are catastrophic."

Blumenthal said that Kavanaugh has aligned himself with Trump's agenda when it comes to immigration, birthright citizenship and "damaging" tariffs.

He pointed to Kavanaugh's concurrence that let immigration agents stop people based on factors including ethnic appearance, speaking Spanish, and working certain jobs, which Kavanaugh called "a relevant factor" and "common sense." The tactics later became known as "Kavanaugh stops," Blumenthal noted.

When Trump appealed a decision that blocked his tariffs, the Supreme Court sided with a lower court decision that called Trump's claims "unconstitutional," Blumenthal said. "Kavanaugh, however, said, Well, not only is it not unconstitutional, let me suggest certain laws and other kinds of citations of tariffs that you could cite" to get around laws stopping Trump's tariffs.

"He was playing the staffer to Trump," Blumenthal said. "And then Trump attacked the majority on the court as fools and dogs. But then he said, 'Kavanaugh, I'm so proud of him.'"

Blumenthal then pointed to Kavanaugh's "masterpiece of errors, factual revisionism and sophistry" on birthright citizenship, saying the justice built his case on speculation about what the framers of the 14th Amendment would have wanted.

"This is mind reading in a time machine about a non-existent legal category projected forward," Blumenthal said. "This is a fantastical fiction."

'Took my breath away': Expert flags 'precarious situation' Supreme Court just created

A law expert warned on Wednesday that the Supreme Court's decisions this week — and its reluctance to conclusively resolve central constitutional issues — should concern Americans.

Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman discussed the high court's major decisions and "blockbuster term" during a Substack video and conversation with Melissa Murray, NYU Law professor and co-host of Strict Scrutiny. They focused on the potential ramifications connected to the birthright citizenship case and questions that remain following the ruling.

"They’ve done the right thing and stood up for the court’s right to citizenship, but they could have done it a year ago," Murray said. "So, you know, I guess points for reading. No points for taking a year to read."

"The second thing I will say is that it took my breath away how close this opinion was; we are one vote away from rescinding the 14th Amendment, and people should understand that for what it is," Murray added. "That is a precarious, precarious situation, especially if we are in a situation where we may see a vacancy on the court, where we may be in a position to install right-wing teenagers on the court. I don’t know. I don’t know who’s next for this president, but we are one vote away from undoing the 14th Amendment."

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence, dissenting in part, stating that although the executive order under President Donald Trump violated a federal statute, he suggested that the 14th Amendment does not actually prohibit Congress from stripping birthright citizenship from children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.

"He’s also noted that birthright citizenship has been statutorily authorized and that Congress could, and maybe in the future, will decide whether or not to rescind that and that it’s not a constitutional question," Murray explained. "That’s a huge thing for him to just put in a concurrence. It is an invitation for future activism and advocacy on this question. So this is not a settled question. And that goes back to the first point I made. This court could have settled this once and for all a year ago by saying, here is what the 14th Amendment says."

But that didn't happen.

"Instead, they’ve allowed it to fester and percolate," Murray said. "They’ve made it seem unsettled. And now Brett Kavanaugh has opened a window for the right-wing ... to run in, perhaps agitate for some kind of congressional action on this case. And maybe we will be rescinding birthright citizenship by statute in a few years. This is all to say, this is not in the clear. We are not in the clear. This is not over. And everyone should understand that."

The Supreme Court's Biggest Decisions & What Everyone Is Missing - Live with Melissa Murray by Harry Litman

Why the conventional media narrative about the term is way off base

Read on Substack

Platner's accuser ran with the playbook that saved Kavanaugh: former GOP operative

One of the three accusers against Graham Platner had a role in helping Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh survive his confirmation fight, according to a former GOP operative.

In the latest episode of his podcast, "Against All Enemies," former GOP operative Rick Wilson detailed the history of Lyndsey Fifield, the ex-girlfriend featured in the New York Times article about Platner's past relationships.

"She's a CPAC person. She's a conservative activist person," Wilson explained. "She ran a group, of course, called Ladies for Kavanaugh, which might have been a giveaway if you thought it through."

Fifield's "most recent gig" is working at the Independent Women's Forum, which Wilson described as "a right-wing group." He added that "this attack coming from this particular person makes a lot of sense."

Wilson played a clip of who he identified as the chair of the IWF publicly boasting how her group wrote a memo "about supporting Kavanaugh without alienating the Me Too movement." Kavanaugh faced a tough confirmation hearing after allegations of sexual assault against him surfaced.

"We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House and Fox News and elsewhere," the speaker said in the clip. "But most important is Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she could not have seen how to support him, and if you look at her speech that she gave on the Senate floor, it is entirely the playing out and architecture of how we structured the argument."

Platner is running to beat Sen. Collins (R-ME) and win a seat that will be critical to helping Democrats take back control of the Senate.

Wilson ties the connections together, saying Fifield is "the woman who ran Ladies for Kavanaugh, who works for Independent Women's Forum that provided Susan Collins with all of her talking points about Brett Kavanaugh and how she could support Brett."

He added that the attack against Platner resembles the kind of political hit he would have carried out.

"That's precisely the kind of thing I was extremely good at doing when I was a Republican," Wilson said. "That is precisely the kind of thing I would engineer and stage and find somebody who would go out and be the face of it."

MAGA Hit Jobs and How To Beat Them by Rick Wilson

Breaking down last night's results

Read on Substack

Supreme Court 'coming apart' as justices lob 'chilling' public attacks: analysis

The Supreme Court's infighting has spilled out into public view, and it paints an ugly picture of the judicial body, according to a political analyst.

The New York Times opinion columnist Jesse Wegman believes recent activity from Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas highlights the trouble brewing inside the Supreme Court. Wegman wrote, "We’ve come to expect diatribes against entire swaths of the country from the Trump administration, but to hear a Supreme Court justice do it is somehow more chilling.

"All Supreme Court justices are at risk of huffing their own fumes. It comes along with the lifetime appointment, the endless cosseting and flattery. It’s easy for them to forget that they play a unique role in American life, and are held to a higher standard of behavior than the rest of us.

"These days, the Supreme Court sometimes feels as if it is slowly coming apart, the victim of both its own members’ arrogance and the hardball politics that Senate Republicans used to pack the court with right-wingers over the past decade."

Thomas, earlier this month, delivered a scathing critique of progressivism during a speech at the University of Texas Austin Law School, characterizing the political philosophy as fundamentally incompatible with American constitutional principles.

Thomas argued that progressivism seeks to replace the foundational premises of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself. "Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government," Thomas stated. "[Progressivism] holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from government."

Sotomayor also made headlines earlier this month for a scathing put-down of Kavanaugh. Speaking at the University of Kansas School of Law earlier this month, Sotomayor said Kavanaugh "probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour" in response to a question about a recent case concerning immigration law.

In the case, Kavanaugh argued that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should be allowed to conduct what's known as "roving stops" to check someone's immigration status.

Sotomayor publicly apologized to Kavanaugh a week later. In her statement, Sotomayor said, "At a recent appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law, I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made remarks that were inappropriate. I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague."

Supreme Court 'private tensions' growing during 'politically explosive' session: report

The Supreme Court's internal disagreements have spilled out into a public display, according to a report profiling the ongoing tensions.

The Supreme Court has experienced significant internal friction in recent weeks, marked by heated disputes between liberal and conservative justices. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has publicly criticized Justice Brett Kavanaugh over his handling of immigration cases and civil rights protections. Sotomayor condemned Kavanaugh's concurrence supporting immigration stops based on ethnicity and language, calling his reasoning insufficient.

Sotomayor would later apologize publicly to Kavanaugh, whose office did not issue a response to the initial criticism or apology to follow. Analysis from Wall Street Journal columnist James Romoser reads, "As the Supreme Court barrels toward the final stretch of a politically explosive term, its private tensions are surfacing in public.

"A series of blunt remarks by three justices in recent days has offered a glimpse into strained personal relationships, ideological divides and internal alarm over how the court is making key decisions.

"Such candid airing of friction is unusual at the court, where personal discord is normally kept behind closed doors and legal disagreements are rendered in the formal language of written dissents.

"The remarks all come as the court is under pressure both from its caseload and from President Trump, who has frequently disparaged the justices in recent weeks."

Despite the frayed internal relationship for the Supreme Court, there is a sense that the judicial body will still prove to be a problem for Donald Trump.

The New York Times's Ross Douthat said, "So, most likely there’ll be some victories for Trump, but there’ll be two really large defeats — birthright citizenship and tariffs. Both are very big issues. Birthright citizenship is more important to the Republican base or the conservative base. Tariffs are obviously close to Trump’s own heart.

"A year ago there was a lot of conversation, including on this show, about what it would take for Trump to defy the court. In practice, you’ve had a sequence of setbacks for the president that have been met by angry tirades on social media. Some attempts to do end-arounds. But basically, Trump has accepted the power of the court to block him."

Supreme Court justice's public 'dagger' at Kavanaugh was no accident: analysts

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor leveled serious criticism at fellow Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his "Kavanaugh stops," Slate legal experts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern explained on Friday.

The race-based detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection that Kavanaugh and the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority approved last year give federal immigration agents permission to detain Latinos based, in part, on their "apparent ethnicity."

Sotomayor had a stern comment for Kavanaugh: "I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops. This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn't really know any person who works by the hour."

"Justice Sotomayor usually goes out of her way to compliment her colleagues when she does these talks, including those on the right. She focuses on collegiality and how they all respect each other," Lithwick said. "She’s made headlines for lavishing praise on Clarence Thomas in the past. So why did she aim this dagger at Kavanaugh?"

Mark Joseph Stern described why Sotomayor's blunt response was significant.

"Well, I think this was almost certainly intentional and preplanned," Stern said. "When Justice Sotomayor does these public events, she generally seems to plant questions with her interlocutor that will allow her to make a statement. She knows she’s going to make news. So no one should think this was just Sotomayor riffing off the cuff. I believe it’s something she wanted both us and Kavanaugh to hear."

Disgraced former Stormy Daniels lawyer out of prison but still not free: TMZ report

Michael Avenatti, disgraced former lawyer of Stormy Daniels, was released from prison this week while facing a mountain of debt and still not completely out of custody, TMZ reported on Wednesday.

Avenatti represented the adult film actress and director in her hush money payment case against President Donald Trump and also represented women who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. He was convicted of multiple crimes, including a $20 million extortion scheme against Nike and stealing $300,000 from Stormy Daniels, for which he served approximately 4 years of an 11-year-and-3-month sentence before he was released on Tuesday. He was also disbarred following the conviction.

"Avenatti is not a fully free man," TMZ reported. "He's been ordered to serve more time in a halfway house in Hollywood. He's also required to participate in mental health treatment and stay away from unlawful controlled substances. His projected release date is September 2028."

But that's not all.

He was also required to pay restitution of $5,937,725.58, according to TMZ.

Sotomayor gives Kavanaugh reality check: 'Doesn't know any person who works by the hour'

A Supreme Court Justice has criticized a colleague appointed by Donald Trump for failing to grasp the severity of the administration's immigration policy.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor hit out at her colleague, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, during an event yesterday (April 7). Sotomayor, appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama, criticized the September 8 emergency order which meant lower court rulings were to be paused indefinitely.

This means immigration agents have a wider scope for profiling people and are free to target them based on their language, occupation, race, or presence at specific locations like bus stops, Bloomberg Law reported. Sotomayor referenced a piece by Kavanaugh while delivering a speech at the University of Kansas School of Law.

She said, "I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops. This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour."

Sotomayor went on to claim that even short-term detentions can affect those wrongly arrested by immigration agents. "Those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person," she said. "And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just cold supper."

"Life experiences teach you to think more broadly and to see things others may not. And when I have a moment where I can express that on behalf of people who have no other voice, then I’m being given a very rare privilege."

Kavanaugh's concurrence with the immigration stops and the lower court suspension, according to Sotomayor, "relegates the interests of U.S. citizens and individuals with legal status to a single sentence, positing that the Government will free these individuals as soon as they show they are legally in the United States."

Justice Kavanaugh authored a controversial concurrence supporting immigration stops based on ethnicity and language. He wrote that "apparent ethnicity" could be a "relevant factor" in immigration enforcement.

However, he later attempted to walk back these remarks, stating officers "must not make interior immigration stops or arrests based on race or ethnicity," though legal experts criticized this as insufficient damage control for his earlier endorsement of racial profiling.