Jak Allen, University of Kent Political grandstanding during the nomination of a new US Supreme Court justice is perhaps to be expected in the era of Donald Trump. But the process surrounding Brett Kavanaugh – and his testimony on September 28 – has caused potentially irreparable damage to the one […] Read more »
Bitter Tenor of Senate Reflects a Nation at Odds With Itself
… To the right and left alike, Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination appears less like a final spasm of division — a sobering trauma, followed by calm resolution — than an event that deepens the national mood of turbulence. The country is gripped by a climate of division and distrust rivaled by […] Read more »
Understanding ‘the white women thing’
Donald Trump likes to brag that most women in America voted for him for president. Like many things the president says, that’s just not true. Most women, 54 percent, voted for Hillary Clinton. However, 52 percent of white women did vote for Trump — and that’s the cohort that drives […] Read more »
Here’s why confirming Kavanaugh could seriously undermine the Supreme Court’s public standing
Could Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination undermine the public standing of the Supreme Court? Observers such as the Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein think so. “Every time [Chief Justice John] Roberts would lean on Kavanaugh to construct a majority,” Brownstein writes, “the chief justice could further erode the Court’s already eroding public confidence.” In […] Read more »
Republicans Rescued Kavanaugh’s Nomination By Making It About #MeToo
Brett Kavanaugh seemed like the dream Supreme Court nominee for Republican voters and activists when he was nominated in mid-July. He had the résumé and experience to be confirmed relatively easily, but also a clear ideological background that suggested he would join the conservatives already on the high court in […] Read more »
How Kavanaugh Could Boost Turnout
It’s hard to have a conversation about politics in recent weeks without it quickly turning to President Trump’s nomination of federal Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. … People ask, “What impact do you think the Kavanaugh nomination will have on the midterm elections?” My […] Read more »