by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, July 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump just made his Supreme Court pick. If confirmed, the choice will pivot the nation's courts in a more conservative direction for decades to come, experts said.
Experts said the president's choice of Brett M. Kavanaugh for Supreme Court justice reflects the president's views on government deregulation, limited government, and pro-business attitudes -- as well as those of his supporters.
"(Trump's) choices were vetted by the Federalist Society, which is very conservative. It has examined writings and public statements to ensure (Trump's prospective nominees) have consistently conservative principles," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.
Trump's pick means a major pivot toward the ideological right, as it will create a majority for conservatives in the Supreme Court. That could last for a generation, as justices serve until retirement or death, and at 53, Kavanaugh is relatively young.
Moreover, Trump is making an aggressive push to appoint conservative judges to federal courts nationwide.
Experts and media said this is likely to further strengthen the right-of-center backlash against many of former President Barack Obama's liberal policies. Many Trump supporters, who espouse an ideology of limited government power, saw the Obama era as one big government power grab, whether true or not. And rightly or wrongly, many Trump supporters also viewed it as an era of discrimination toward conservatives and evangelicals. For these and other reasons, Trump's pick will be warmly welcomed among his supporters, experts said.
If confirmed, Kavanaugh will replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Kavanaugh was first nominated to the appeals court in 2003 by President George W. Bush, a conservative Republican who espoused traditional Christian and conservative values. During the 1990s, Kavanaugh worked previously with independent counsel Kenneth Starr in the investigation of then President Bill Clinton (a liberal Democrat), which culminated in the most recent impeachment of a U.S. president.
Experts said Kavanaugh reflects the values of not only Trump, but also his supporters, many of whom live far away from coastal cities such as New York and Los Angeles, and espouse sharply different values than many people in major cities. Many of Trump's supporters say they are fed up with what they view as liberal activists judges, who they say aim not to uphold the law, but rather to impart their personal, left-of-center values into the legal system.
During more than a decade on the bench, Kavanaugh has been involved in nearly 300 legal opinions. One recent case involved both the hot-button issue of immigration, as well as abortion, an issue about which Trump's evangelical supporters feel strongly. Kavanaugh wrote a decision that temporarily prevented a pregnant teenager, in detention for entering the country illegally, from getting an abortion, although the opinion was later overturned.
The choice of Kavanaugh could also have an impact on independent counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Trump's campaign team was in bed with the Russians prior to the 2016 elections that saw Trump clinch the White House.
In an article in 2013, Kavanaugh wrote that presidents should be free from lawsuits, such as the sexual harassment case that ended in the impeachment of former President Clinton. Kavanaugh also wrote that presidents should be free from criminal investigations.
For many in the Republican Party's base, Trump's pick means putting a stop to "activist judges," and that there will be a more conservative judiciary that takes a slower pace on social issues and is more likely to restrain the powers of government and regulatory policy, experts said.
"For many, the chance to reshape the judiciary was a reason that they supported then-candidate Trump," Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of Congress and the Presidency, told Xinhua, speaking of those who cast their vote for Trump in 2016.
Many in Washington are expecting a knock-down-drag-out political brawl over Kavanaugh's nomination, with U.S. Democrats fighting tooth and nail against Trump's pick.
Since Republicans have a very slim majority in the Senate, any GOP disagreements on Kavanaugh could pose a problem with getting confirmed by lawmakers. However, nearly a dozen Democrats in pro-Trump states are running for re-election in the upcoming mid-terms, and that will put them under pressure to support Trump's pick.
Mahaffee said that for Democrats, there is not much that they can do now, but they will use this as an issue that will fire up their base in November's mid term elections.
West said "the pick will galvanize Democrats, who will see many of their policy preferences slipping away from a conservative-dominated court."
