Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with President Donald Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday despite his previous vow not to do so.
Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court on July 9. The judge has faced a particularly tough confirmation process since he would give the highest court a solid conservative majority. The Senate Judiciary Committee begins its confirmation hearing on the nomination September 4.
Schumer (pictured above) has been at the forefront of that opposition but finally did agree to have a sit-down with Kavanaugh. It was anything but clear, however, from the New York Democrat’s post-meeting comments whether he intended his time with Kavanaugh to be for anything other than show.
“The conversation was cordial and direct,” Schumer told a crowd of reporters about an hour after his meeting. “Unfortunately, Judge Kavanaugh refused to answer even the most basic questions about his jurisprudence or judicial philosophy.”
Schumer said Kavanaugh did not answer his questions regarding the Roe v. Wade abortion decision or Obamacare. Federal court nominees routinely refuse to say in advance how they would rule on a particular issue, but that fact didn’t prevent Schumer from pressing Kavanaugh.
“I repeatedly asked him to reassure me that he believes the Affordable Care Act is constitutional,” Schumer said. “He refused to do so. As with reproductive rights, it’s not good enough for this justice, this potential justice. I hope he doesn’t get there, for this judge to say, well, he’ll follow existing law because that changes all the time.”
The New York Times reported that Kavanaugh affirmed that Roe v. Wade is established law after meeting with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Schumer responded that he still wasn’t reassured by the reported comments.
“I am to understand Judge Kavanaugh told some senators that Roe v. Wade is settled law,” Schumer said. “He didn’t say that to me. But that is not the important or decisive question. Everything that the Supreme Court decides is settled law until a majority of the Supreme Court decides to unsettle it.”
Schumer had been encouraging Democratic colleagues not to meet with Kavanaugh until he releases an estimated 1 million documents from his time working for President George W. Bush. He worked as a senior associate counsel and assistant before the former president appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2006.
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Some Democrats have already started meeting with the nominee despite the calls by party leaders not to. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) became the first to break party lines when he met with him July 30. Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) then met with him last week, with more scheduled before his first hearing September 4.
Kavanaugh met with a handful of other senators throughout the day as well. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the first to meet with him in the morning. She is one of a couple of Republicans who are undecided. Kavanaugh then met with Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
Democrats elsewhere are still fiercely resisting against the nomination. Many more have still not met with him, leaving diminishing time to do so with an upcoming recess. Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) held a news conference Tuesday to discuss how his nomination threatens health care for women of color.
Schumer hasn’t completely backed down from his push for documents despite meeting with him. He threatened to sue the National Archives for the judge’s full records August 16. The issue is that many of the documents are covered by executive privilege, and the former administration is currently in the process of vetted them.
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Grassley claimed during a judicial committee meeting last week that Kavanaugh submitted the most robust bipartisan committee questionnaire ever, at roughly 17,000 pages. Approximately 250,000 documents from the White House period have already been turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and other Republicans see the demand as nothing more than an attempt to delay the nomination process until after the midterm elections in November. Democrats would then potentially be in a position to block the nomination if they are able to flip enough seats.
Schumer was among numerous Democrats who opposed the Kavanaugh nomination even before it was announced. He has argued that delaying the nomination until after the midterms would be appropriate considering what happened to Judge Merrick Garland in 2016.
Former President Barack Obama nominated Garland to fill that seat toward the end of his term in 2016. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed voters should have the opportunity to select the next president before the vacancy was filled, so he delayed the vote. Trump then nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch, whom the Senate confirmed.
A Quinnipiac University Poll found that 44 percent of voters support Kavanaugh’s nomination, while 39 percent oppose him. The survey was conducted from August 9 to 13.
Kavanaugh would be replacing retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy if his confirmation is confirmed.
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