Rep. Richard Pickett recently wrote (guest column, July 15) to encourage the public to give Judge Brett Kavanaugh a fair hearing, regardless of people’s political persuasion, since he has demonstrated that he is “open-minded.”
However, in this day and age, open-mindedness is irrelevant, since every Republican judicial appointee since the Reagan years has been reviewed, scrutinized and vetted by the Federalist Society. That conservative foundation goes over every decision, every speech and every bit of legal writing to make sure Republican appointees will toe the party line to be strict constructionists and pro-corporation in their outlook.
If anyone doubts that, they should look at the past 20 5-4 decisions by the Supreme Court. People will see that every one has promoted corporate interests (Citizens United) , weakened unions (Janus) or weakened voter access (Husted, Perez). In Husted, Ohio was allowed to purge voter rolls that were overwhelmingly minority voters and, in Peres, expressly race-based gerrymandering was allowed in Texas.
It is well known and preordained that Judge Kavanaugh will fit that mold. Whether he is “open-minded” will not matter.
It is also noteworthy that Kavanaugh has written that the president should be immune to legal charges — this at just the time when charges might be brought forward by the Mueller probe.
Even as the president cozies up to Vladimir Putin and doubts his own government’s evidence of Russian interference in the elections, America may be getting a justice who will protect a possibly treasonous president from the processes of control and justice.
Steve Bien, Jay
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