Kavanaugh Nomination

Another first-rate -- and conservative -- pick.

I'm slammed with other projects this week, but I just wanted to briefly praise Brett Kavanaugh, whom I know from clerking, and whose work I've followed since he has been on the D.C. Circuit. He's extremely smart and thoughtful, an excellent writer, and, if confirmed, is likely to be an intellectual leader on the Court. He's also without doubt quite conservative, though, as usual, it's hard to predict exactly how he would decide the many matters on which he hasn't extensively written. This is pretty much what people (including me) said about Neil Gorsuch, and I think it's equally true of both them.

Whatever one might say about some of President Trump's other decisions, most of his appellate judicial nominations have generally been first-rate under all the traditional measures of quality; there have been a few exceptions, but very few. (Naturally, many people will find much to disagree with in the various nominees' ideology, and many others will find much to agree with, but that's a separate matter.) That is indubitably so as to Kavanaugh.