SCOTUS Kennedy just retired.

[bignflnut]

SAF is on board with Kav

The Second Amendment Foundation this evening applauded president Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court created by the looming retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.

“We’re encouraged by this nomination,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “because by adding Judge Kavanaugh, we might see the high court become more willing to accept and rule on important Second Amendment issues, such as right-to-carry...

GOA seems encouraged

Erich Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America (GOA), issued the following statement on Pres. Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court:

“Gun Owners of America is optimistic that Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be a huge improvement over the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on many constitutional issues, including the Second Amendment.

“Initial reports suggest that Judge Kavanaugh deeply respects the Second Amendment, even though he was not the strongest of the finalists...

[catfish86]

I am somewhat lukewarm on this...but he did author a dissent in the DC Circuit in Heller when they OK'd the DC handgun ban that was ultimately overturned.

[bignflnut]

The cascade of blind cheering from national "proRKBA groups" continues, unabated.

The NRA tweeted a statement from NRA-ILA executive director Chris Cox: “On behalf of our six million members, the NRA strongly supports Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. We will be activating our members and tens of millions of supporters throughout the country in support of Judge Kavanaugh.”

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) likewise rallied behind Kavanaugh’s nomination. NSSF senior vice president and general counsel Larry Keane extended the NSSF’s “support to President Trump’s nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.”

Keane added, “We are confident that Judge Kavanaugh will serve our nation with distinction as an Associate Justice of our nation’s highest court and that he will make decisions that will serve to protect the Second Amendment and other Constitutionally guaranteed rights of law-abiding Americans.”

**I added the "activating" link, because they deserve that...

NRA not activating regarding the redefinition of machine gun, sweeping away bump stocks and other accessories...it should be noted...

[deanimator]

I was hoping for G. Gordon Liddy, but Kavanaugh will do.

[bignflnut]

Judge Kavanaugh either has no respect for the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, or he was unethically attempting to curry favor with the Republican establishment, exemplified by former President George W. Bush and his administration, which Kavanaugh had worked for as staff secretary in the White House Counsel's office. President Bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney, not coincidentally, had also put in place this mass surveillance, using September 11 as the pretext.

Kavanaugh obviously understood that his aspirations to someday become a Supreme Court justice would depend on his close ties to this Republican Bush-Cheney establishment, who would someday, if the chance arose, push for his nomination. And, indeed this came to pass in the last weeks, after Kavanaugh's mentor who he clerked for in his early career, Justice Anthony Kennedy, announced his retirement from the Supreme Court. The swamp creatures of this slimy Republican establishment . . . pushed The Donald to name Kavanaugh as the next SCOTUS justice.

That ALONE should tell you all you need to know. But it's actually worse than that. Kavanaugh, like Roberts, is a totally controlled toady of the Deep State.

Kavanaugh helped Ken Starr cover up the Deep State's murder of former Bill Clinton legal counsel Vince Foster. To quote Joel Skousen:

The Vince Foster cover-up wasn't a simple case of an erroneous conclusion based upon weak evidence. This was a full blown conspiracy to intimidate witnesses that proved the official version was a lie. As Starr's deputy, there is no way that Kavanaugh could not have known that there was a cover-up and conspiracy going on.

[bignflnut]

What Does Originalism Mean?

When President Trump nominated Judge Kavanaugh, he praised his predecessors, Justice Kennedy and the late Justice Antonin Scalia, saying that Judge Kavanaugh would apply the Constitution as it is written. This is what originalism means, that the law means what it says, just as it is written, in context with the meaning of the words used at the time.

What should we expect with the Second Amendment?

Judge Kavanaugh has already rendered decisions on firearms cases. He dissented in the Heller II decision, arguing the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller decision authored by Justice Scalia protected private ownership of modern sporting rifles, called D.C. registration requirements unconstitutional and the list of banned firearms “haphazard” writing that it provided “no particular explanation or rationale for why some made the list and some did not.”

Just putting the marker down here, for future reference, that Kav was sold to the Trumpian base as "an Originalist".

[bignflnut]

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Tim Scott torpedoed a conservative nominee to the Ninth Circuit appeals court on Thursday whom even liberals called qualified for the bench, citing college-era political comments, energizing Democrats, and creating a new line of attack against the confirmations of dozens of other judicial picks, including Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court.

SNIP

Bounds’ failed nomination has already emboldened Democrats to put forth a strategy of judicial activism.

The Washington Post noted Thursday that the after Senate’s failure to nominate Bounds to the Ninth Circuit, Democrats are using the opportunity to demand that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh release more than 1 million pages of documents—even if the writings have no basis in judicial opinion.

Even though Kavanaugh has a lengthy public record of opinions from serving as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and working in the Bush White House, the failed Bounds nomination gives Senate Democrats an opportunity to obstruct judicial nominees on partisan grounds.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has already responded to the Bounds fiasco by demanding all college-era writings from Brett Kavanaugh, plus every document he’s been associated with in the almost-30 years since then. Democrats are looking for other nominees’ writings as well in their quest for judicial activism.

Leftists, who have long sought out activist judges to get their priorities across, are also using establishment Republicans willing to nominate moderates to get their agenda across.

Billionaire Paul Singer–one of Rubio’s top presidential funding sources–pours tremendous funds into those left-of-center priorities—including amnesty, open borders, the LGBT agenda, gun control, abortion, and racial preferences.

Rubio could be the next one to Bork a nominee...

Difficult to believe that each and every GOP senator would stay out of Trump's way...Collins, Murkowski (2022), Rubio (2022), Scott (2022), Grassley turns 88 in 2022, Portman (2022), Toomey (2022), Ron Johnson (2022), Flake...there's not ONE that can/will be bought off?

Can you imagine the sums being offered?

[bignflnut]

Although Kavanaugh indicated that he would have struck down the ban on semi-automatic rifles and the registration requirements, his discussion of the proper test to use to review gun laws suggests that he might be willing to uphold some gun laws, such as those requiring a license to carry a concealed weapon, as long as they are consistent with the history and tradition of regulating guns. He contended that a test that assesses “gun bans and regulations based on text, history, and tradition” will often give governments “more flexibility and power” than a balancing test, because “history and tradition show that a variety of gun regulations have co-existed with the Second Amendment right.”

Whatever Kavanaugh’s position is likely to be on different efforts to regulate guns, he would, if confirmed, be only one of nine justices on the court. We know from his recorded dissents from the denial of review that Thomas would vote to review and overturn some existing gun laws, and we know that Gorsuch – at least to some extent – agrees with him. But it takes four votes to grant review in a case, and we do not know whether Roberts and Alito also agree with Thomas but have opted not to say so publicly, or whether they instead are content to leave the court’s gun-rights jurisprudence as it is.