By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
Upon its return from the Labor Day weekend, the Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to hold a hearing Sept. 4 on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, and at least two national Second Amendment organizations have urged their members to encourage the Senate to quickly confirm him.
Kavanaugh has been nominated to fill the seat left vacant by the retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy at the end of July. The 53-year-old nominee has been a judge on the federal court in Washington, DC, for 11 years.
The nomination has gotten recent support from both the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
“We have looked at Judge Kavanaugh’s record, as a White House associate under President George W. Bush, and as a clerk at the US Supreme Court for Justice Kennedy, and can find no fault with his background,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “It’s our opinion that President Donald Trump has made an excellent choice in his nomination of Judge Kavanaugh, and he would have a difficult time finding another candidate with his experience.”
Judge Kavanaugh was born in Washington, DC, and raised in Maryland. Gottlieb noted Judge Kavanaugh’s 11 years of service in the DC Circuit have definitely prepared him for a seat on the nation’s highest court, should his nomination be confirmed.
Speaking for CCRKBA, Gottlieb observed, “Only those who wish to rewrite the Constitution, omitting the Second Amendment in the process, would oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation… The fact that Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination is being strongly opposed, if not downright vilified, by the gun prohibition lobby clearly signals to us that he is the right man for the job.”
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has applauded the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat on the United States Supreme Court.
“President Trump has made another outstanding choice in nominating Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court. He has an impressive record that demonstrates his strong support for the Second Amendment,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA-ILA.
“We urge the Senate to swiftly confirm Judge Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, just as it confirmed him to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.”
The NRA reminded people that during his tenure on the Court of Appeals, Kavanaugh wrote a strong dissenting opinion in opposition to Washington, DC’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic firearms and registration requirement by applying an historical test consistent with Justice Scalia’s opinion in Heller.
The Kavanaugh nomination has received broad support from conservatives, but is being hotly opposed by liberals. A mid-August report in New York magazine identified Kavanaugh as a “stealth radical,” although the magazine headline seemed to lament the nominee is “encountering surprisingly little resistance.” But that may belie the reception he gets from Senate Judiciary Democrats who have all but vowed to block the nomination.
Anti-gunners seriously oppose Kavanaugh because they fear his presence on the high court will allow more Second Amendment cases to be considered, with the outcome benefitting those who want to expand the right to keep and bear arms. The fear in some states is that their restrictive gun laws will come under intense scrutiny, which is why all the gun control groups are opposed to Kavanaugh’s confirmation and are busy raising money and spending it to politicize the court.
“One simply does not find a legal mind of such experience on every street corner,” Gottlieb said. “He must be quickly confirmed so Judge Kavanaugh can ‘hit the ground running’ when the Supreme Court begins its next session on the first Monday in October.”
