Brett Kavanaugh Fact Sheet
Brett Kavanaugh, currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, has been nominated to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh’s nomination threatens the rights of consumers, workers, and immigrants, as well as women’s reproductive rights and protections for clean air and clean water.
Would Protect the Wealthy and Powerful Over Rights of All
Kavanaugh dissented from rulings upholding the Affordable Care Act, which provides healthcare for millions of Americans. In another dissent, he argued that the entity created to protect consumers from unscrupulous banks after the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression–the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau–is unconstitutional. In the fight for a free and open internet, Kavanaugh sided against the FCC’s net neutrality rule. When a court found that the merger of two major health insurance companies would violate antitrust laws, Kavanaugh dissented. When a consumer group fought for stricter tire safety standards, Kavanaugh ultimately ruled against them.
Kavanaugh’s record shows disdain for working Americans, opposing basic protections for workers banding together to hold their employers accountable, consistently ruling against claims of worker discrimination and safety, and finding against workers who stand up against corporate mistreatment.
Won’t Stand Up To Donald Trump
Kavanaugh’s personal writings raise concern that he would allow Donald Trump’s abuses of power to go unchecked. He has argued that “criminal investigations and prosecutions of the President” should be deferred while he is in office. In 1998, he wrote that “Congress should give back to the President the full power to act when he believes that a particular independent counsel is ‘out to get him.’”
Will Overturn Roe V. Wade
Trump has again and again reminded us that he will only put justices on the Supreme Court that pass his litmus test of overturning Roe v. Wade. Trump said overturning Roe “will happen automatically . . . because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.” Kavanaugh tried to block an undocumented minor in government custody from exercising her right to abortion care. When the D.C. Circuit overruled him, Kavanaugh claimed the court was creating “a new right” for immigrants in custody “to obtain immediate abortion on demand.”
Ruled Against Clean Air and Clean Water
Kavanaugh has consistently ruled against environmental protections, striking down EPA protections under the Clean Air Act, opposing efforts to fight climate change, and finding against protections for clean water.