Brett Kavanaugh is done with Senate hearings. What's his next step toward the Supreme Court?
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After a fourth and final day of questioning, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh completed the hearings stage of his confirmation process Friday.
The next step is a vote within the the Senate Judiciary Committee, which committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has scheduled for this coming Thursday, Sept. 13, followed by a vote on the Senate floor. Though Democrats may delay the committee vote by up to a week, a party-line ballot could see Kavanaugh seated on the court in time for the start of its next session on Oct. 1.
Kavanaugh has come under close scrutiny for his views on abortion, detention and treatment of terrorism suspects, warrantless wiretapping, and more. Senate Democrats have accused him of dishonesty, but their 51 GOP colleagues are increasingly expected to confirm the nomination unanimously.
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"If Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, I submit we will have the most pro-presidential powers Supreme Court in the modern era," testified John Dean, a Nixon White House attorney who spoke at the Kavanaugh hearings Friday. "With Judge Kavanaugh on the court, we should anticipate a majority that will find it increasingly difficult to discover any presidential actions which they do not approve."
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
