Brett Kavanaugh

Brett Michael Kavanaugh (/ˈkævənɔː/ KA-və-NAW; born February 12, 1965) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018 and has served since October 6, 2018. He previously was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and worked as a staff lawyer for various offices of the federal government.

Kavanaugh studied history at Yale University, where he joined Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He then attended the Yale Law School, after which he began his career as a law clerk and then a postgraduate fellow working under Judge Ken Starr. After Starr left the D.C. Circuit to become head of the Office of Independent Counsel, Kavanaugh assisted him with various investigations concerning President Bill Clinton, including the drafting of the Starr Report recommending Clinton's impeachment. After the 2000 U.S. presidential election, in which he worked for the George W. Bush campaign in the Florida recount, he joined the administration as White House staff secretary and was a central figure in its efforts to identify and confirm judicial nominees. Kavanaugh was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President Bush in 2003. His confirmation hearings were contentious; they stalled for three years over charges of partisanship. He was ultimately confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in May 2006 after a series of negotiations between Democratic and Republican U.S. senators. An evaluation of Kavanaugh's appellate court decisions in four separate public policy areas was performed by two law professors for the Washington Post. It found he had been "one of the most conservative judges on the D.C. Circuit" between 2003 and 2018.

President Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court on July 9, 2018, to fill the position vacated by retiring associate justice Anthony Kennedy. Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in the early 1980s while the two were in high school. Three other women also accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, one of whom recanted her accusation. A man also accused Kavanaugh of assault against a woman in 1985, but this was again recanted. Kavanaugh denied all accusations. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a supplemental hearing over Ford's allegations, after which it voted to advance the confirmation to a full Senate vote. On October 6, the full Senate confirmed Kavanaugh's nomination by a vote of 50–48.