Kavanaugh pens Op-ed: I Am an Independent, Impartial Judge 'Yes I was emotional'

Wall Street Journal ^ | Oct 4, 2018 | Brett Kavanaugh

[CondoleezzaProtege]

I was deeply honored to stand at the White House July 9 with my wife, Ashley, and my daughters, Margaret and Liza, to accept President Trump’s nomination to succeed my former boss and mentor, Justice Anthony Kennedy, on the Supreme Court. My mom, Martha—one of the first women to serve as a Maryland prosecutor and trial judge, and my inspiration to become a lawyer—sat in the audience with my dad, Ed.

That night, I told the American people who I am and what I believe. I talked about my 28-year career as a lawyer, almost all of which has been in public service. I talked about my 12 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often called the second most important court in the country, and my five years of service in the White House for President George W. Bush. I talked about my long record of advancing and promoting women, including as a judge—a majority of my 48 law clerks have been women—and as a longtime coach of girls’ basketball teams.

As I explained that night, a good judge must be an umpire—a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no political party, litigant or policy. As Justice Kennedy has stated, judges do not make decisions to reach a preferred result. Judges make decisions because the law and the Constitution compel the result. Over the past 12 years, I have ruled sometimes for the prosecution and sometimes for criminal defendants, sometimes for workers and sometimes for businesses, sometimes for environmentalists and sometimes for coal miners. In each case, I have followed the law. I do not decide cases based on personal or policy preferences...

[uncbob]

My thoughts also

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I can’t read anything on WSJ because of their paywall.

[caww]

..."You can count on me..... dedicated to the Constitution and the public good....

....I revere the Constitution..... I will keep an open mind in every case

and always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States

and the American rule of law."......'Judge Kavanough'

[RoseofTexas]

I’m praying so hard they know something we don’t! But tomorrow is going to be the freakiest nastiest circus we have yet to encounter from the mob! Honestly I am so sick of them!! The mob has the upper hand there as the majority of anti American anti constitution anti God haters live there!! It’s so infuriating that I know a lot of us around the net sphere feel helpless in countering these bastards!!

[RoseofTexas]

I’m praying so hard they know something we don’t! But tomorrow is going to be the freakiest nastiest circus we have yet to encounter from the mob! Honestly I am so sick of them!! The mob has the upper hand there as the majority of anti American anti constitution anti God haters live there!! It’s so infuriating that I know a lot of us around the net sphere feel helpless in countering these bastards!!

[Paladin2]

Here's the sad truth [over time]:

[caww]

[samtheman]

I can’t remember anything he said that he shouldn’t have said.
—
There was nothing. This was a gracious gesture made to a pack of wild, rabid dogs. It will be lost on them completely and it falsely labels his own righteous anger as some out out-of-line.

I guess I understand why he did this and I don’t hold it against him for doing it... but I deeply wish he hadn’t.

[blondiegoodbadugly]

Thanks for posting.

[magellan]

I won’t read it because he does not need to apologize or explain anything.

FFFFFFF his detractors.

I am one of those skeptics who has been radicalized in my support of Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

[katieanna]

Thank you for the Op-Ed your Honour, and for speaking your heart. I understood your emotion entirely and you did not need to apologize. The Supreme Court is your destiny and you will be a Justice of great consequence. God bless you and your family.

[NKP_Vet]

“As Justice Kennedy showed us, a judge must be independent, not swayed by public pressure.”

Exactly what Anthony Kennedy did when he caved to the rabid democrats and homosexual lobby when he sided with his liberal activist pals on the court to give the country homosexual “marriage.”

[A_Former_Democrat]

You owe NO ONE any apology

So don’t do it

Anyone who’s been falsely accused, especially by a brain dead basket case like Fraud, is justifiably angry

You’ve been treated like crap, especially by lawyers masquerading as Senators. They should be the ones apologizing

Shame on them. Hold your head high, you’ve survived going thru hell and back

[Stepan12]

Bullies go crazy when those bullied fight back and effectively, too. And the lib/commie mob is a pack of bullies.

[Stepan12]

With the vitriol that Judge Kavanaugh is faceing, he might not go full Kemmedu, but instead, get rid of Roe v Wade. He probably wasn't going to do that before, but the viciousness against him might have radicalized him as it did to many other Republicans.

[madison10]

Agree. Should not have submitted this now. There are those on OUR side who will see this as wobbly and might change their minds...voters, not senators.

[The Westerner]

You have no idea how lonely it is being a Kavanaugh or a Trump or a Thomas surrounded by monsters. Doesn’t matter where those voices are coming from. I guarantee you Judge Kavanaugh and his wife will be reading these comments. One after one, positive, intelligent, they get it. WSJ is NOT only subscribed to by right wingers. This was dramatically different. If you don’t understand, I can’t explain it to you.

[The Westerner]

Having spent a year reading Twitter, where no good person’s feed remains unpolluted, the number of negative to positive was shockingly low. And the negative voices were so unintellectual that they got swatted down handily by the readers. Very helpful to see so many strong, resolute, Constitutionalists signing on just to tell the Judge “we’re with you” or “we apologize our country did that to you.”

[The Westerner]

The left is not only made up of crazies. Most of my family and many friends and colleagues hold left wing ideas and don’t like Trump. WSJ is read by them. That’s why this set of comments stood out as different. It isn’t only one side. It’s the American side. What’s left of the basic goodness and decency we all experienced growing up in the 50’s and 60’s when differences didn’t matter because we all loved this country.

[Truth29]

"Agree. Should not have submitted this now. There are those on OUR side who will see this as wobbly and might change their minds...voters, not senators."

Yes, the pro argument is that he did this to reach out to Collins, Murkowski and Flake and maybe Manchin to secure their votes; the counter argument is that he will adversely effect the commitment of some of those who would vote for him plus lessen the fire on the Right to vote in November. We will soon know.