The nomination and confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was the political event of 2018, though not for the reasons anyone expected. All High Court confirmations these days are fraught with emotion and tumult as the Court looms ever larger on the political scene. But the Kavanaugh circus last year took that excitement to a new level with hysterical demonstrations, wild accusations, and the sense of a country that was losing its mind.
In Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court, Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino recount the hearings that captivated court-watchers, political junkies, and — by the end — the whole nation. Through a careful recounting of the events helped by scores of interviews with the political players, Hemingway and Severino have laid out the galvanizing tale of mudslinging and madness that reinforced the nation's separation into rival political tribes, and the nomination that pushed the Court toward a more reliably originalist and conservative disposition.
The drama began even before Kavanaugh was selected. From the moment Justice Anthony Kennedy announced that he would retire, interest groups planned their assault on the nominee for his replacement, whoever that might be. The authors describe a massive, well-funded effort to smear and destroy whichever judge President Trump nominated, even down to the signs protesters were given with a blank space to fill in the nominee's name.
The authors draw a clear parallel to the Left's opposition to earlier nominees, including Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Then, as now, mainstream-media sources echoed the Democrats' complaints so perfectly that, if they were not actively coordinated, they might as well have been. This time, there was never a pretense of objectivity or consideration: They planned from the start to oppose whomever the president nominated.
