Brett Kavanaugh Talks Presidential Power, His Taylor Swift Fandom, and an Expensive Trip to See Caitlin Clark

CNN
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Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said at a judicial conference in Austin on Friday that his experience in the George W. Bush administration has made him more skeptical of presidential claims about regulatory power.

His comments on the issue (he also discussed Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clark) were especially relevant in light of the many challenges to the Biden administration’s policies that the court is expected to rule on by the end of June.

Referring to his 2001-2006 tenure as Bush’s lawyer, Kavanaugh said he was “in the room” as the regulations were written and saw firsthand the “pressures” on administrations to exceed the limits of their statutory power, whether in relation to the environment. , immigration or healthcare.

“It gives me a good, for lack of a better term, BS detector,” he said. “When the executive branch says, ‘We can’t do this.’ … I think to myself … I saw it happen.”

Kavanaugh noted that presidential candidates regularly campaign on a reform agenda, but then become stymied in their priorities by the legislative process and congressional gridlock. This creates an incentive for presidents to exceed the limits of their regulatory authority, he said, emphasizing that the phenomenon affects both political parties.

“The judiciary exists to help police these borders,” Kavanaugh said.

The comments from Kavanaugh, appointed in 2018 by former President Donald Trump, may suggest that the resolution of pending disputes by the court’s conservative majority will test the limits of a range of federal regulations. Since the six-justice conservative majority joined in 2020, the court has taken longer steps to tighten federal regulators, from environmental and consumer finance to public health and workplace safety.

A pair of pending cases could lead to the most substantial movement against regulatory power in decades; These cases test a 1984 decision, Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which requires federal judges to defer to the views of U.S. agencies on their legal mandates for policy.

Business groups, backed by Republican-run states, say the Chevron principle has led to illegal bureaucratic intrusions and given the government the upper hand in litigation.

The Biden administration, defending the Chevron precedent and the multi-agency policies now under challenge, has underscored the importance of executive branch expertise and comprehensive national protections for the public good.

The Eras Tour and an ‘expensive’ trip to see Caitlin Clark perform

Kavanaugh’s hour-long appearance Friday in an Austin hotel ballroom came as the high court enters its most tense few weeks yet, negotiating privately to resolve dozens of cases within the traditional deadline of the end of June. He answered questions from 5th Circuit Chief Judge Priscilla Richman at the circuit’s annual judicial conference.

In general, Richman’s questions were lighter, including those that opened a window into Kavanaugh’s extracurricular life. He said his two high school daughters, now sophomores and seniors, control much of his time off the bench.

He attended his first Taylor Swift concert in 2012, he told Richman after she asked if he had attended an Eras Tour show.

Yes, the judge said, Kavanaugh describing himself as “way ahead of the curve” with his Swiftie fandom.

And he took his daughters to several NCAA basketball tournaments, including the first round at Iowa last March.

The judge said that on the Thursday night before the tournament weekend, his oldest daughter was talking about players she knew from her high school basketball team who would be competing against Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.

Kavanaugh’s youngest daughter said, “We should go!”

A few moments later, Kavanaugh agreed: “We should go. We went. … I went on StubHub, bought the tickets, got the flights, probably one of the most expensive 48 hours.”

But he added: “Go to Iowa and see the Caitlin Clark phenomena. This is a lifetime memory I made in the heat of the moment.”

Speaking much more seriously about his daughters, Kavanaugh said they grew up with constant police security at the courthouse.

Asked about the intense security for individual judges since 2022, when the opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade was first leaked. Wade, the judge said his security team is “24/7 at home” and accompanies him when he travels.

When Richman asked if protesters still show up at his house, a pattern that intensified after he joined the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe, Kavanaugh said, “occasionally…not so much. I think I’ll leave it there.