All eyes are on the U.S. Senate as its members consider whether to confirm U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
With Republicans holding just a narrow, two-member majority in the Senate, every vote to confirm the conservative justice matters, and pro-life U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is one of several Republicans who has expressed concerns about Kavanaugh.
Bloomberg reports Paul, a strong pro-life politician, disagrees with Kavanaugh’s stance on privacy issues and the Fourth Amendment. He did not say how he will vote yet, only that he is keeping an “open mind” as he researches the nominee.
Here’s more from the report:
Paul, who ran for president with a libertarian-minded platform, so far hasn’t tipped his hand, tweeting he’s keeping an “open mind.”
“I’m not going to make any comment until we’ve had a chance to look through and really go through a discovery process, meet the nominee,” Paul said in an interview when asked about Kavanaugh shortly before President Donald Trump announced his choice Monday night.
… Paul himself filed a federal class-action lawsuit in 2014 claiming that the government’s collection of phone records on hundreds of millions of Americans violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and requiring warrants based on probable cause. A year later, Kavanaugh wrote an opinion with the opposite view in a separate case challenging the program.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation rests with several U.S. Senators who often are swing votes on abortion and other issues. Two fellow Republican Senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, are being heavily lobbied by the abortion industry to oppose Kavanaugh. Both have pro-abortion voting records, but they did vote to confirm Trump’s first nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2017.
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Other swing votes include several moderately pro-life Democrats, U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, who claims to be pro-life, already has said he will oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Pro-life Vice President Mike Pence also can serve as a tie-breaking vote, as he has on other pro-life legislation in the past.
With so many unknowns, every U.S. Senator’s vote is important to the future of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said they will vote prior to the mid-term elections on confirming Kavanaugh.
A federal judge, Kavanaugh has served on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. for more than a decade, where he developed an extensive record of protecting religious liberty and enforcing restrictions on abortion. Pro-life leaders believe he would do the same on the U.S. Supreme Court.
National pro-life leaders have expressed high hopes for Kavanaugh and the future of unborn babies’ rights.
ACTION: Contact U.S. Sen. Rand Paul.
