Brett Kavanaugh Confirmed as Newest Supreme Court Justice

Brett Kavanaugh will be the newest Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. The 53-year-old judge was confirmed in a 50-48 vote by the Senate Saturday afternoon.

The vote fell almost exactly along party lines, with two exceptions. Alaska’s senior senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, initially voted against Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but changed her vote to Present to cancel out the absent Yes vote from Montana Sen. Steve Daines, who was at his daughter’s wedding. Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted to confirm the judge. Even if Manchin had voted against Kavanaugh, a hypothetical 50-50 vote wouldn’t have mattered; as president of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence would break the tie and confirm Kavanaugh.

Despite three separate allegations of Kavanaugh sexually assaulting women, as well as his wild and inflammatory testimony during the Dr. Christine Blasey Ford hearing on Sept. 27 and perjury throughout his confirmation hearings, the Senate still found him suitable to serve a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. This makes the past several weeks of sexual assault survivors pleading with senators to vote against Kavanaugh, opening up about their own trauma in the process, feel all the more frustratingly fruitless.

Though we don’t know much about Kavanaugh’s views on LGBTQ rights, we can bet he won’t be an ally on the Court. (He’s far too big a fan of religious freedom for that.) 

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