Replies to post #290081 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[BOREALIS]

Kavanaugh Confirmation -- Scenes from Jeff Flake's Supreme Court rebellion

The Arizona Republican's head-snapping moves Friday left Washington in shock and Brett Kavanaugh in renewed jeopardy.

By BURGESS EVERETT, ELANA SCHOR and JOHN BRESNAHAN
09/28/2018 10:13 PM EDT
Updated 09/28/2018 10:53 PM EDT

Four senators undecided on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination gathered Thursday night for a quiet chat with earth-shaking consequences. The topic: How to handle sexual assault allegations against the judge without embarrassing their chamber.

In Susan Collins' third-floor office in the Capitol, she and her Republican colleagues Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — joined by Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia — agreed they had the power to make or break Kavanaugh. And without settling on precise details, they decided to use their leverage to insist on a process that would allow them to reach a comfort level with Kavanaugh's confirmation process and seek more information, rather than to kill his Supreme Court nomination outright, according to two people familiar with the meeting,

What resulted on Friday afternoon threw Washington into chaos and guaranteed another week of uncertainty and suspense surrounding Kavanaugh's confirmation. Just hours after Flake endorsed Kavanaugh and seemed to put him on a path to the high court, the Arizonan said he first wanted a week-long FBI investigation into Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that the judge assaulted her. It was a victory for Democrats who'd been demanding such a probe, to no avail, and promises to define the retiring Flake's legacy as someone who refused to let Kavanaugh get a vote while under a cloud of doubt.

The 18 hours between the Thursday night gathering in Collins' office and Flake's surprise announcement capped an epic week filled with emotional testimony, brutal partisanship and a nearly unanimous feeling that the Senate had stumbled in front of the nation. But the Flake-led rebellion, however long it lasts, had been building for nearly two weeks.

Though Murkowski, Collins and Manchin all endorsed the FBI investigation on Friday, Flake needed another partner to pull off his move because none of them serves on the Judiciary Committee. So Flake, who's been mocked for writing a book blasting the Trump presidency only to vote for his agenda, teamed up with a Democrat.
Flake requests FBI probe then votes with committee's GOP

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Kavanaugh Confirmation
Kavanaugh confirmation hits major snag after Flake seeks FBI probe
By ELANA SCHOR, BURGESS EVERETT and JOHN BRESNAHAN
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/28/flake-will-vote-to-confirm-kavanaugh-to-the-supreme-court-851291
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Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) has spent his eight-year Senate career making earnest attempts to build relationships with Republicans, at times to liberals' annoyance. He and Flake have taken trips around the world together as part of their duties. And on Friday afternoon, with a Supreme Court seat on the line, it all paid off.

Coons and Flake vacated the Judiciary Committee shortly before the panel was expected to vote to advance Kavanaugh, a seemingly innocuous moment that left onlookers increasingly bewildered as more senators joined them in the back room. They returned minutes later with a deal that forced GOP leaders to bow to the minority's demand for an FBI probe, delaying the confirmation for as much as a week.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/28/jeff-flake-brett-kavanaugh-backstory-853839

[BOREALIS]

American Bar Association and Yale Law School Urge F.B.I. Inquiry Into Kavanaugh

A vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination should be held “only after an appropriate background check” by the F.B.I. into sexual assault allegations against him, the American Bar Association said on Thursday. CreditCreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

By Austin Ramzy and Christine Hauser
Sept. 28, 2018

Read the latest updates on the Senate’s handling of the Kavanaugh nomination.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/us/politics/brett-kavanaugh-senate-judiciary.html?action=click&module=Intentional&pgtype=Article

The American Bar Association called Thursday evening for postponing a vote on Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court until sexual assault and misconduct allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford and others are investigated by the F.B.I.

The dean of Yale Law School, Judge Kavanaugh’s alma mater, echoed the A.B.A.’s call. “Proceeding with the confirmation process without further investigation is not in the best interest of the Court or our profession,” Dean Heather K. Gerken said in a statement on Friday.
https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/dean-gerken-joins-aba-calling-further-investigation

And the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States, America, withdrew its endorsement of Judge Kavanaugh, ..https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/09/27/editors-it-time-kavanaugh-nomination-be-withdrawn ... . who was educated by Jesuits at Georgetown Preparatory School in Maryland. In a statement on Thursday, the editors said the nomination was “no longer in the best interests of the country.”

“If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a woman’s report of an assault,” the magazine said. “Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country.”

The statements followed a day of emotional and at times painful testimony, which included Dr. Blasey’s allegations of sexual assault by Judge Kavanaugh at a house party 36 years ago and his angry denial of the encounter.

The A.B.A. request was made on Thursday evening in a letter from the association’s president, Robert M. Carlson, to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s chairman, Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the senior Democrat on the panel.

The bar association urged that senators vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination “only after an appropriate background check into the allegations made by Professor Blasey and others is completed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the letter said.

NEWS: The American Bar Association—whose “well qualified” rating has been cited by Kavanaugh—calls on the Senate to delay a vote on his SCOTUS nomination until after the @FBI conducts a background check on the Ford allegations. pic.twitter.com/UAbmT1kKqh

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 28, 2018

The call for a pause is significant not just because of the bar association’s clout in the legal community, but because an A.B.A. committee had said unanimously a month ago that Judge Kavanaugh was “well qualified” for the Supreme Court, its highest possible designation.

Judge Kavanaugh and his supporters had noted that distinction in arguing for his nomination to be approved by the Senate.

The request for an investigation was made out of respect for the rule of law and due process, Mr. Carlson wrote.

“The basic principles that underscore the Senate’s constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and the facts by the F.B.I.,” he wrote.

“Each appointment to our nation’s highest court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote,” the letter added. “Deciding to proceed without conducting additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senate’s reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/us/politics/judge-kavanaugh-american-bar-association-fbi.html