Who Is Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's Pick For The Supreme Court?
Updated at 11 p.m. ET
President Trump has chosen Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — often thought of as the second-most-powerful court in the country — to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh is a connected Washington insider with roots in politics in the George W. Bush White House. He has written almost 300 opinions for the D.C. Circuit in 12 years — and he is only 53, which means he could serve on the high court for a very long time.
Some conservatives, though, question his bona fides, and he is controversial with Democrats because of his role investigating President Bill Clinton as part of the Starr investigation in the 1990s. And he now believes that a sitting president should be protected from litigation and criminal investigations because they "are time-consuming and distracting."
Notably, in an era of hotly partisan politics, Kavanaugh has said that it's important not to be a partisan when one becomes a judge. "Check those political allegiances at the door when you become a judge," Kavanaugh said in 2015 in a speech at Catholic University's law school.
He also spoke at length about the necessity of humility. Part of being a good judge, he said, is "Don't be a jerk."
