WASHINGTON -- Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's nominee to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, traveled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with lawmakers, including Arkansas' two U.S. senators.
The U.S. Court of Appeals judge for the District of Columbia Circuit spent an hour with Sen. Tom Cotton, discussing judicial philosophy.
The two men, both lawyers, huddled in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office near the rotunda, after posing for a swarm of photographers.
"We talked about his record and his views of the role that a Supreme Court justice is supposed to play in our constitutional system," the Republican from Dardanelle said.
Cotton, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, said he was comfortable with what he heard.
"I'm of the opinion that the Supreme Court has taken too many decisions out of the hands of democratically elected officeholders over the last 50 years. That's one reason why so many decisions are polarized in our society, in my opinion. It looks like from his record on the Court of Appeals, he shares that view, that judges are there to interpret the Constitution, to interpret the laws as they're written. Not to impose their own views and values on the democratic process," he said.
Kavanaugh, who has served on the court since 2006, was once a law clerk for Anthony Kennedy, the justice he has been nominated to replace.
Certain topics were off limits during Wednesday's meeting.
"We obviously didn't get into particular cases or how he would rule in any particular case since that would undermine the entire concept of being a judge. But we spent a lot of time exploring our current state of the law and how that affects our country, how that affects the state of Arkansas. This is one of the most important votes we cast. This is a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land," Cotton said.
The Supreme Court, which breaks for the summer, will resume hearing arguments Oct. 1.
"I think we'll finally have him confirmed in time for that term to begin. If not, we would only miss it, I think, by a few days," Cotton said. "I think all 50 Republicans will vote for him, and I think we'll get two or three Democrats as well."
Shortly after Kennedy announced his retirement, Trump consulted with Cotton about the vacancy.
"He'd already kind of narrowed his thinking down to four or five judges. And Judge Kavanaugh was one. And we just talked through how each would be received in the Senate, the pros and cons of each of those nominees," Cotton said.
The senator said he told Trump that all of the potential nominees were strong but didn't state his preference.
"He asked me for my choice, and I just said to him, 'Mr. President, you've got to make that choice yourself. This is going to be your call for history and if you get it wrong, nobody's going to come back and say Tom Cotton or Mitch McConnell made a mistake here. They're going to say you made the mistake,'" Cotton recalled.
Later Wednesday, Kavanaugh met with the state's senior senator, John Boozman.
They spoke for about 45 minutes.
"I came away with the attitude that he was certainly very well qualified to be a candidate for the Supreme Court and somebody that I can and will support," Boozman said.
"He's certainly a person that respects the Constitution," the Republican from Rogers said.
Kavanaugh, Boozman said, "wants to interpret the law based on how the people that wrote the law intended versus being a judicial activist and trying to create law and create policy. He told me ... 'You read it as written, not as you wish it was written.' That really summed up exactly what I was looking for."
Boozman predicts the confirmation hearings will happen after Labor Day and foresees a vote before Oct. 1.
"If nothing unexpected comes out of the hearing, then I don't think he's going to have any problem being confirmed," Boozman added.
Metro on 08/02/2018