In violation of rules, Democrats unveil pages from Supreme Court nominee’s time in George W. Bush administration
Separately, in a March 2003 email from Judge Kavanaugh reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Judge Kavanaugh took issue with the notion that the Roe v. Wade case, which established the right to an abortion, is “settled law.”
“I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since [the] Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so,” Judge Kavanaugh wrote. That email was first reported by The New York Times.
Democrats argue that there is no reason for such material to be designated confidential. Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) said he was willing to work with Democrats on specific documents they wanted released, and other GOP senators said unilaterally releasing documents wasn’t an acceptable solution.
.. The documents that Democrats planned to release didn’t appear to involve any classified national security information. Rather, they were internal administration documents from the Bush years, given to Congress in exchange for keeping them confidential.
.. Republicans note that restricting access to some sensitive documents to senators-only has happened in previous nomination fights, including during the successful nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama.
.. During the Kagan nomination, then-chairman Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) agreed to accept documents from the Clinton administration as long as they were kept confidential and limited to senators and their staff.
.. The law governing information from former White House occupants gives former presidents some control over their documents. In many cases, presidents or their lawyers can control the release of information for a certain period of time after they leave office.
Mr. Booker’s actions drew protests from Republicans on the panel, who accused Mr. Booker of grandstanding for a future presidential campaign.