Jim Daly Statement on the Confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh

We are extremely pleased that Judge Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Judge Kavanaugh is a man of proven judicial temperament, fair and impartial to all who appear in his courtroom. He has served almost three decades in public service. He deserves to sit on the nation’s highest court, and the nation will be greatly served because of it.

The road to today’s confirmation has been ugly and clearly one of the most contentious ones the nation has ever witnessed.

That includes the 1987 ill-fated nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, in which he was smeared on the floor of the U.S. Senate within minutes of his nomination by Senator Ted Kennedy in the now-infamous “Robert Bork’s America” speech; and the 1991 Supreme Court nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas, in which he was accused of sexual harassment of a former employee, Anita Hill. The lurid, uncorroborated accusations against Judge Thomas split the nation following the “he said/she said” nature of the testimony.

In many ways, those blots on our nation’s history pale in comparison to what has been done to Judge Kavanaugh over the last several weeks, as uncorroborated charges of sexual assault were aired on national television and across social media as if they were proven facts, only to be refuted by witnesses and a supplemental FBI investigation, the seventh of his lifetime of public service. And even after Judge Kavanaugh ran this gauntlet and survived, he barely squeaked through his confirmation vote, mostly along party lines, in a vote that could have been predicted before he was even nominated.

This vote has always been about something other than Judge Kavanaugh, who is a good man and a fair and impartial jurist. Some see him as a possible fifth vote on the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade someday, since he appears to be more of a constitutionalist judge than the justice he is replacing, Anthony Kennedy. As such, Judge Kavanaugh was a marked man before he was even nominated, as evidenced by protestors at the Supreme Court with fill-in-the-blank protest signs awaiting the President’s announcement of his pick on July 9th. The Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer (D – NY), announced on July 10th that he would oppose Kavanaugh with “everything I’ve got” before he had read a single judicial opinion written by the judge.

There are, of course, deeper issues in play here. If we continue to look to the Supreme Court to create laws that we can’t pass via the democratic process in Congress or in state legislatures, we are going to go through this same sickening circus that we just went through with now-Justice Kavanaugh, where there is no tactic too low to deploy in the quest to destroy good men and women who are willing to serve our country and have the skills and qualifications to do so.

I have no doubt that Justice Kavanaugh will serve with distinction and honor while on the Supreme Court. He’s already done so during his almost-thirty years of public service. But if we don’t learn from this moment in time; if we continue to retreat to our “tribes” on every issue and view everyone else as an enemy; and if we don’t return the function of the judicial branch back to the way our Founders envisioned rather than what it has become, then God help us.

In fact, I believe God can help us if we turn to Him. Won’t you join me in praying for Justice Kavanaugh and his family, and for this wonderful country of ours?