Ann Coulter Slams ‘Open Borders Zealots’ on Trump’s SCOTUS Shortlist, Backs Kavanaugh
Ann Coulter Slams ‘Open Borders Zealots’ on Trump’s SCOTUS Shortlist, Backs Kavanaugh
30
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...av-640x480.jpg
Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images4
By Jan Mason Jul 2018
Ann Coulter unloaded on Judge Raymond Kethledge, one of the judges President Donald Trump interviewed to potentially replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, on Twitter Wednesday.
“Hardiman & Kethledge are open borders zealots,” the New York Times best-selling author and populist conservative columnist said in the most explosive of her tweets:
Later, when challenged on her assertion, Coulter expounded on how she reached her conclusion, citing several opinions in which Judge Kethledge favored expanding the legal options available to illegal aliens facing deportation:
In 2013’s Patel, Kethledge wrote an opinion that expressly rejected the government’s contention that an American immigration law’s purpose is to protect American workers and benefit American businesses. “One can speculate that Congress meant to exclude certain aliens to protect American workers, and admit other, ‘qualified’ aliens to help American employers,” Kethledge wrote. “But there is no basis in the text of the statute—none—to conclude that Congress was completely indifferent to the interests of the ‘qualified immigrants’ themselves.”
In 2009’s Nguyen, Kethledge joined an opinion by Jimmy Carter-appointee Gilbert Merritt holding that grand theft auto did not qualify as an “aggravated felony” mandating deportation.
The tweets followed one in which she chastised those on the right pushing for Kethledge, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, as repeating the mistakes of the past that led to Republican administrations nominating judges, such as Justice David Souter, who became massive disappointments to conservatives:
The rebukes comes as right-leaning outlets like the Daily Caller report on a number of sources close to the selection process who are aggressively advocating picking Kethledge and citing a very positive interview with the president. Sources within the conservative legal community with whom Breitbart News discussed the matter expressed their own misgivings over Kethledge’s judicial philosophy.
Coulter, a University of Michigan Law School grad, threw her weight behind Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the D.C. Circuit, comparing his record on immigration, the issue on which Coulter most closely focuses, to the other reported candidates. She also pointed to Kavanaugh’s strength on the Second Amendment:
Kavanaugh wrote a widely-cited pro-gun rights dissent in the first major appellate Second Amendment case after the landmark 2009 District of Columbia v. Heller Supreme Court decision in which, much like Justice Antonin Scalia, he extensively relied on the original public meaning of the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
Much of the coverage of Kavanaugh in the left-leaning media has focused on his connection to George W. Bush, in whose administration Kavanaugh served in the White House Counsel’s Office and who appointed Kavanaugh to the federal bench. Coulter saw this as a campaign of manipulation on the media’s part to turn Trump, who has had a sometimes contentious relationship with Bush administration veterans, against Kavanaugh:
View image on Twitterhttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/DhRVHTBW...jpg&name=small
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who has emerged as a conservative favorite in the nomination process, was also featured in Coulter’s analysis. Coulter did not explicitly attack Barrett, but explained her preference for Kavanugh by pointing to Barrett’s relative lack of experience. Barrett has only been a judge for seven months and has never ruled on a wide variety of issues. Coulter saw her as a potential “blank slate” and warned against nominating anyone on the basis of being a woman:
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Twitter Ads info and privacy
President Trump has reportedly also interviewed Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Judge Amul Thapar of the Sixth Circuit, and three other candidates in connection with the Supreme Court seat. He is expected to announce his decision on Monday.
https://www.breitbart.com/big-govern...cks-kavanaugh/
Kavanaugh Still Favored For Supreme Court
https://www.newsmax.com/CMSPages/Get...axsidesize=600
Brett Kavanaugh appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2004. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
By John Gizzi | Wednesday, 04 July 2018 11:45 PM
With barely four days to go before President Trump makes official his choice to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, the favorite remains D.C. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh has an advantage because he has the most consistent conservative judicial track record of the known candidates — one that mirrors Trump's views on several key issues, including immigration, trade deals, abortion and gun rights, according to two sources familiar with the current White House selection.
The president's key legal advisors, White House Counsel Don McGahn and Federalist Society chief Leonard Leo, are also said to be favorable to Kavanaugh. They have argued that he holds two critical criteria for nomination: a Trump-like judicial record and the ability to get confirmed by a razor-thin GOP-controlled Senate.
Holding frontrunner status can be dangerous, however. Kavanaugh has become the target of some conservative groups, including a Daily Caller report that included anonymous sources describing him as close to the Bush family.
"Kavanaugh is Jeb Bush's pick for the Supreme Court," The Daily Caller cited one "source" and noted that he worked as associate counsel to President George W. Bush.
But a legal source familiar with Kavanaugh and his background has been surprised by these claims. He says Kavanaugh hasn't spoken to Jeb Bush in more than a decade.
He adds that Kavanaugh came out of the era of Reagan judicial appointees, including Justice Anthony Kennedy and former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr.
His long record of court opinions show Kavanaugh is no "Bushie" — his rulings have been said to be more like Scalia than Kennedy.
For example, Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion in Heller v. District of Columbia, which unapologetically embraced the Second Amendment and argued that judges should not re-interpret the founders' original intent.
His ruling is considered the most pro-Second Amendment opinion of any court of appeals opinion, one that has been cited repeatedly by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
In another case, American Meat Inst. v. USDA, Kavanaugh upheld federal requirements that foreign manufacturers had to label country-of-origin on their products, rules that support American manufacturers, farmers and jobs.
Kavanaugh, his supporters say, took a risky position to become Starr's associate counsel in the Whitewater probe, and his efforts there led to the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
Ed Meese, President Reagan's Attorney General and one of his closest associates, has known Kavanaugh for decades and confirmed he has been a solid Reaganite as a judge.
"I know Brett Kavanaugh reasonably well and think highly of him," Meese told Newsmax.
"He is a very able guy, an originalist who is faithful to the Constitution and believes in it."
Other social conservatives claim Kavanaugh has been weak on abortion. But his record paints a different picture.
"On the vital issues of protecting religious liberty and enforcing restrictions on abortion," Sarah Pitlyk, counsel to the Thomas Moore Society, wrote in National Review, "no court-of-appeals judge in the nation has a stronger, more consistent record than Judge Brett Kavanaugh. On these issues, as on so many others, he has fought for his principles and stood firm against pressure. He would do the same on the Supreme Court."
The Thomas Moore Society is a national, pro-life public interest law organization.
Kavanaugh, 53, was one of five prospective candidates for the high court interviewed by Trump earlier this week. Also interviewed at the White House Monday were Kavanaugh's fellow Appellate Judges Amy Coney Barrett (7th Circuit), Amul Thapar (6th Circuit), and Ray Kethledge (6th Circuit). On Tuesday, Trump conducted a telephone interview with Utah's Republican Sen. Mike Lee.
According to several accounts, Trump was impressed with Kavanaugh's education and history of published articles on complex legal matters—criteria that are important to the President in selecting judicial nominees.
One noticeable and much-discussed article by Kavanaugh in 2009 seemed to foresee the conflict today between the President and Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.
Writing that year in the Minnesota Law Review, the jurist argued that presidents should be free from "time-consuming and distracting" lawsuits and investigations, which "would ill serve the public interest, especially in times of financial or national security crisis."
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/tru.../04/id/869997/