Yes, Brett Kavanaugh reads the online discourse about the Supreme Court
Kavanaugh's remarks came as several federal judges spoke out in a videoconference Thursday about death threats they'd received and their belief that heated political rhetoric fueled such threats and potential violence.
Kavanaugh made no mention of threats to judges, although a man has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing for attempting to assassinate the justice at his home in 2022. Kavanaugh touted judicial independence as 'the crown jewel of our constitutional democracy,' but did not paint it as acutely endangered in the way the court's liberal justices have suggested in recent months.
Kavanaugh also defended the Supreme Court's handling of the so-called emergency docket, where the Trump administration has filed more than 20 urgent appeals and has often found success blocking some of the district court rulings Trump has complained about. Critics argue that the Supreme Court issues rulings of massive significance on that docket without detailed opinions and typically without the legal briefing and argument that goes into regular cases.
'Because of the importance of those questions, we have been, I think, doing more and more process to try to get the right answer on those,' Kavanaugh said. 'Lots of new processes that we have undertaken over really the last five or six years to help us make the best decision we can in the short time we have.'
With some lower-court judges expressing irritation at the high court for not explaining its reasoning in emergency orders, Kavanaugh pronounced himself 'a fan' of the court doing so. But he cautioned there are some drawbacks and some disagreement among the justices about the wisdom of more detailed emergency docket rulings.
'I think there are different views among members of the court about when to do it and when not. We're nine independent people,' he said.
Kavanaugh did seek to minimize perceptions of a stark divide at the Supreme Court between liberal and conservative camps. He referred to his colleagues by their first names and insisted relationships among the justices are friendly.
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