BRETT KAVANAUGH/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, the question that would hang over him, based on all he has been through and all he has said, is: Can he be fair? Retired Justice John Paul Stevens, prominent law professors, attorneys and lawmakers have all raised that question as senators prepare to vote on his nomination Saturday [10-6-18]. Stevens told a Florida audience that there was ‘merit’ to the criticism that Kavanaugh has ‘demonstrated a potential bias involving enough potential litigants before the court that he would not be able to perform his full responsibilities’…Even from the start, President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh was incendiary. The atmosphere in the nation’s capital and throughout the country is far more partisan than in earlier decades, and Kavanaugh would succeed centrist conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who held the key vote on the nine-member bench for abortion rights and gay marriage, to name just two of the many social policy issues Kennedy controlled.”
–Joan Biskupic, “Partisanship questions threaten to shadow Kavanaugh on the court,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, October 5, 2018 2:23 pm