Brett Kavanaugh
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Brett Kavanaugh Brett Michael Kavanaugh (/ˈkævənɔː/; born February 12, 1965) is an American attorney and jurist who serves as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Brett Kavanaugh District of Columbia Circuit. Kavanaugh graduated from Yale College cum laude, with a degree in American history, where he was a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon. After graduating from Yale Law School, Kavanaugh began his career as a law clerk and then a postgraduate fellow working under Judge Ken Starr. After Starr left the D.C. Circuit to take the position as head of the Office of Independent Counsel, Kavanaugh followed him to the OIC and assisted Starr with his various investigations concerning President Bill Clinton. Kavanaugh played a lead role in drafting the Starr Report, which urged the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. After the 2000 U.S. presidential election (in which Kavanaugh worked for the George W. Bush campaign in the Florida recount), Kavanaugh joined the administration as White House Staff Secretary and was a central figure in its efforts to identify and confirm judicial nominees.[2] Kavanaugh was first nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President Bush in 2003. His confirmation hearings were contentious; they stalled for three years over charges of partisanship. Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in May 2006 after a series of negotiations between Democratic and Republican U.S. Senators.[3][4][5] An analysis covering the period 2003–2018 found that Kavanaugh had the most or second-most conservative voting record on the D.C. Court in every policy area.[6] To fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh on July 9, 2018, to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. During the confirmation process, Christine Blasey Ford came forward and, through interviews to the press and statements by her attorney, alleged that in the early 1980s Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her.[7][8][9] Kavanaugh "categorically and unequivocally" denied that the event occurred.[10][11] On September 23, Deborah Ramirez alleged sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh;[12] Kavanaugh denied this allegation as well.[13] On September 26, Julie Swetnick alleged that Mark Judge and Kavanaugh organized and participated in gang rape; Kavanaugh denied the allegations.[14] Judge of the United States Polling has shown that Kavanaugh has the lowest approval rating of any Supreme Court nominee in the modern era.[15][16][17][18][19] Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Incumbent Contents Assumed office May 30, 2006 Early life and education Appointed by George W. Early legal career (1990–2006) Bush U.S. Circuit Judge (2006–present) Notable cases Preceded by Laurence Abortion Silberman Affordable Care Act White House Staff Secretary Appointments Clause and separation of powers In office Environmental regulation June 6, 2003 – May 30, 2006 Extraterritorial jurisdiction President George W. First Amendment and free speech Bush Fourth Amendment and civil liberties National security Preceded by Harriet Miers Second Amendment and gun ownership Succeeded by Raul F. Yanes Law clerk hiring practices and controversy Personal details Nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States (2018) Born Brett Michael Legal philosophy and approach Kavanaugh Senate Judiciary Committee public hearing February 12, Sexual assault and rape allegations 1965 Christine Blasey Ford Washington, Deborah Ramirez D.C. Julie Swetnick Political Republican Teaching and scholarship party Personal life Spouse(s) Ashley Estes (m. 2004) Publications Children 2[1] See also Education Yale University References (BA, JD) Further reading External links Early life and education Kavanaugh was born on February 12, 1965, in Washington, D.C., the son of Martha Gamble (Murphy) and Everett Edward Kavanaugh Jr.[20][21] His mother was a history teacher at Woodson and McKinley high schools in Washington in the 1960s and 1970s. She earned her law degree from Washington College of Law in 1978 and served as a Maryland state Circuit Court Judge from 1995 to 2001.[22][23] His father was an attorney and served as the president of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association for two decades.[24] Kavanaugh was raised in Bethesda, Maryland. As a teenager he attended Georgetown Preparatory School, a Catholic all-boys high school, where he was two years senior to future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.[25][26] At Georgetown Prep, he was captain of the school's basketball team and played as a wide receiver and cornerback for the school's football team.[27] He graduated in 1983.[28] Kavanaugh was friends with classmate Mark Judge; both were in the same class with Maryland State Senate member Richard Madaleno.[29][30][31][32] After prep school, Kavanaugh went to Yale University and majored in history.[33] Several of Kavanaugh's Yale classmates remembered him as a "serious, but not showy student" who loved sports, especially basketball.[33] He unsuccessfully tried out for the Yale Bulldogs men's basketball team, and later played for two years on the university's junior varsity team instead.[33] He also wrote articles about basketball and other sports for the Yale Daily News,[33] and was a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon.[34] Kavanaugh graduated from Yale in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude.[33] Kavanaugh remained at Yale to attend Yale Law School. During law school he lived in a dilapidated group house with future judge James E. Boasberg and became a basketball partner of Kavanaugh as a student at Yale Professor George L. Priest, who was the sponsor of the school's Federalist Society.[35] Kavanaugh served as a Notes Editor for the Yale Law Journal, and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1990.[36] Early legal career (1990–2006) Kavanaugh first worked as a law clerk for Judge Walter King Stapleton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.[35] During Kavanaugh's clerkship, Stapleton wrote the majority opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the Third Circuit upheld many of Pennsylvania's abortion restrictions.[35] Priest recommended Kavanaugh to Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski, who was regarded as a feeder judge.[35] After clerking for Kozinski, Kavanaugh next interviewed for a clerkship with Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court, but was not offered a clerkship.[35] Kavanaugh then earned a one-year fellowship with the Solicitor General of the United States, Ken Starr.[37] Kavanaugh next clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, working alongside his high school classmate Neil Gorsuch and with future-Judge Gary Feinerman.[25] After his Supreme Court clerkship, Kavanaugh worked for Ken Starr again as an Associate Counsel in the Office of the Independent Counsel, Brett Kavanaugh while working [38] where his colleagues included Rod Rosenstein and Alex Azar. In that capacity, he handled a number of the novel constitutional and legal for the Independent Counsel in issues presented during the investigation of the death of Vincent Foster.[38][39][40] Though Starr's investigation concluded that Foster had the 1990s indeed committed suicide, Kavanaugh has been criticized for investing federal money and other resources into investigating partisan conspiracy theories surrounding the cause of Foster's death.[41][42] In 1997 to 1998,Kavanaugh was a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. In 1998 he rejoined Starr as an Associate Counselor.[43] In Swidler & Berlin v. United States (1998), Kavanaugh argued his first and only case before the Supreme Court. Arguing for Starr's office, Kavanaugh he asked the court to disregard attorney–client privilege in relation to the investigation of Kavanaugh with President Foster's death.[44] The court rejected Kavanaugh's arguments by a vote of 6–3.[45] George W. Bush and other White House staffers in 2001. Kavanaugh was a principal author of the Starr Report to Congress, released in September 1998, on the Monica Lewinsky–Bill Clinton sex scandal; the report called for the impeachment of Kavanaugh is seated directly to President Clinton.[38] Kavanaugh had urged Starr to ask the president sexually graphic questions and argued on broad grounds for the impeachment of Bill Clinton,[46][47] describing the left of Bush. Clinton as being involved in "a conspiracy to obstruct justice", having "disgraced his office" and "lied to the American people".[48] The report provided extensive and explicit descriptions of each of the President's sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky, a level of detail which the authors described as "essential" to the case against Clinton.[49][50] In 1999, Kavanaugh rejoined the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, as a partner.[43][37] While there in 2000, he was pro bono counsel of record for relatives of Elián González, a six-year-old rescued Cuban boy. After the boy's mother's death at sea, relatives in the U.S. wanted to keep him from returning to the care of his sole surviving parent, his father in Cuba. Kavanaugh was among a series of lawyers who unsuccessfully sought to stop efforts to repatriate Gonzalez to Cuba.[51] The district court, the Circuit Court and the Supreme Court all followed precedent, refusing to block the boy's return to his home.[52] While at Kikland & Ellis, Kavanaugh authored two amicus briefs to the Supreme Court, supporting religious activities and expressions in public places.[52] The first, in 2000, in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, argued that a student speaker at football games voted for by a majority of students should be treated as private speech in a limited public forum; the second, in Good News Club v.