Brett Kavanaugh

Brett Kavanaugh
Kavanaugh sworn in by Justice Kennedy as President Bush and Kavanaugh's wife, Ashley, look on.
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office May 30, 2006
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Laurence Silberman
White House Staff Secretary
In office June 6, 2003 – May 30, 2006
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Harriet Miers
Succeeded by	Raul Yanes
Personal details
Born	Brett Michael Kavanaugh February 12, 1965 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Alma mater	Yale University

Brett Michael Kavanaugh (born February 12, 1965) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He was Staff Secretary in the Executive Office of the President of the United States under President George W. Bush.

A protégé of Kenneth Starr, Kavanaugh played a lead role in drafting the Starr report, which urged the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.^[1] Kavanaugh also led the investigation into the suicide of Clinton aide Vincent Foster. After the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, in which Kavanaugh worked for the George W. Bush campaign in the Florida recount, Kavanaugh joined Bush's staff, where he led the Administration's effort to identify and confirm conservative judicial nominees.^[2]

Kavanaugh himself was nominated to the D.C. Appeals Court by Bush in 2003. His confirmation hearings were contentious and stalled for three years over charges of partisanship. Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed in May 2006 after a series of negotiations between Democratic and Republican Senators.^[3][4][5] Kavanaugh has been mentioned as a future Republican nominee to the Supreme Court.^[6]

Background

Kavanaugh was born on February 12, 1965 in Washington, D.C., and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, the son of Edward and Martha Kavanaugh. He is a Roman Catholic and graduated from the Georgetown Preparatory School before going to Yale College.

He received his B.A. from Yale and his law degree from Yale Law School, where he served as Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is married to Ashley Estes, a native of Abilene, Texas, who formerly served as Personal Secretary to the President in the White House at the same time as her future husband. They have two daughters.

Kavanaugh clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, as well as Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit and Judge Walter Stapleton of the Third Circuit. Prior to his Supreme Court clerkship, Kavanaugh earned a one-year fellowship in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States, Kenneth Starr. The Solicitor General's office represents the United States before the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh was later a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, where his practice focused on appellate matters. Kavanaugh also served as an Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel, where he handled a number of the novel constitutional and legal issues presented during that investigation and was a principal author of the Starr Report to Congress on the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton and Vincent Foster investigation.^[7]

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh: United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

After George W. Bush became president in 2001, Kavanaugh served for two years as Senior Associate Counsel and Associate Counsel to the President. In that capacity, he worked on the numerous constitutional, legal, and ethical issues handled by that office. Starting in 2003, he served as Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary. In that capacity, he was responsible for coordinating all documents to and from the president.

D.C. Circuit nomination and confirmation

President George W. Bush first nominated Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit on July 25, 2003, to a vacancy created by Judge Laurence H. Silberman, who took senior status in November 2000. Kavanaugh's nomination was stalled in the Senate for nearly three years. Democratic Senators criticized him as being too partisan, with Senator Dick Durbin calling him the "Forrest Gump of Republican politics."^[8] The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended confirmation on a 10-8 party-line vote on May 11, 2006, and Kavanaugh was thereafter confirmed ^[9][10] by the U.S. Senate on May 26, 2006 by a vote of 57-36. On June 1, 2006, he was sworn in by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom he had previously clerked, during a special Rose Garden ceremony at the White House. Kavanaugh was the fourth judge nominated to the D.C. Circuit by Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate.

Kavanaugh began hearing cases on September 11, 2006 and had his formal investiture on September 27 at the Prettyman Courthouse. His first published opinion was released on November 17, 2006. He authored the opinion of the court for a unanimous three-judge panel in the case of National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. v. FERC.

In July 2007 Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy and Dick Durbin accused Kavanaugh of "misleading" the Senate committee during his nomination stemming from the Bush White House detention policy.^[11]

See also

• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
• George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates

Notes

1. ^ Associated Press, June 1, 2006, "President Celebrates Judge's Swearing-In" by Deb Riechmann

1. Chen, David; Neil A. Lewis (September 12, 1998). "TESTING OF A PRESIDENT: THE AUTHORS; A Young Protege of Starr, and an Established Nonfiction Writer". New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
2. Lewis, Neil (April 28, 2004). "Bush Aide on Court Nominees Faces Fire as Nominee Himself". New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
3. Lewis, Neil (May 10, 2006). "Senators Renew Jousting Over Court Pick". New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
4. Lewis, Neil (July 26, 2003). "Bush Selects Two for Bench, Adding Fuel to Senate Fire". New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
5. Kellman, Laurie (May 23, 2006). "Kavanaugh Confirmed U.S. Appellate Judge". Washington Post. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
6. Toobin, Jeffrey (18 March 2014). "THE SUPREME COURT FARM TEAM". New Yorker. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
7. Judicial Nominations - Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh
8. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-108shrg24853/html/CHRG-108shrg24853.htm
9. U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote
10. Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit: Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Ninth Congress, Second Session, May 9, 2006
11. 2 Senators Accuse Judge of Misleading Committee - New York Times

External links

• Brett Kavanaugh at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. v. FERC (first opinion authored by Kavanaugh) PDF (164 KiB)
• White House Bio
• Brett Kavanaugh Resume (USDOJ)
• Bloomberg BNA profile (April 28, 2016)
• Article in Legal Times (March 7, 2006)
• Link to transcript of first Senate hearing (April 27, 2004)
• Report of People For the American Way in Opposition to the Confirmation of Brett M. Kavanaugh PDF (87.6 KiB)
• Report on the Death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr,/by the Office of Independent Counsel in Re Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association HATHI Trust Digital Library, Universities of Michigan and Purdue, the complete 137 page, 2 vol. report with app., footnotes, and exhibits.