Brett Kavanaugh

Brett Kavanaugh

Nonpartisan

Supreme Court of the United States

Tenure

2018 - Present

Years in position

6

Prior offices

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

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Education

Bachelor's

Yale, 1987

Law

Yale Law, 1990

Personal

Birthplace

District of Columbia

Brett Kavanaugh is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. President Donald Trump (R) nominated him to the Court on July 9, 2018, to fill the seat left vacant by Anthony Kennedy. The Senate confirmed Kavanaugh in a 50-48 vote, and he was sworn into office on October 6, 2018.

Kavanaugh was born in Washington, D.C., in 1965. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1987 and a law degree from Yale Law School in 1990.

In 1993, Kavanaugh began to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. He worked in the office of U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth Starr from 1994 to 1998 and was a primary author of the Starr Report on potentially impeachable acts by President Bill Clinton (D). During this time, he also worked for private law firm Kirkland & Ellis. While working in private practice, Kavanaugh worked with President George W. Bush's (R) legal team in Bush v. Gore.

Kavanaugh worked as counsel to Bush from 2001 to 2006. Bush nominated Kavanaugh to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2003 and again in 2005, but the Senate did not vote on the nominations. Bush again nominated Kavanaugh in 2006, and the Senate confirmed him in May of that year.

During his U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearings, Kavanaugh responded to allegations of sexual assault, calling the allegations "a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election." Kavanaugh's comments were in response to Palo Alto University psychology professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and two other women who accused Kavanaugh of assaulting them during the 1980s. On September 28, 2018, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 along party lines to report Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate for a vote. The Senate voted 51-49 to end debate on Kavanaugh’s nomination on October 5, 2018. Click here to read more statements from Kavanaugh's nomination hearings.

Describing his judicial philosophy, Kavanaugh said justices should "begin with the constitutional text and the original understanding, which are essential to proper interpretation of our enduring Constitution." He said, "As I see it, the Constitution is primarily a document of majestic specificity, and those specific words have meaning, which absent constitutional amendment continue to bind us as judges, legislators, and executive officials," and that "changes to the constitutional laws are to be made by the people through the amendment process and, where appropriate, through the legislative process, not by the courts snatching that constitutional or legislative authority for themselves."

As a circuit judge, Kavanaugh’s notable opinions include his dissenting opinion in Garza v. Hargan on abortion and his concurring opinion in Klayman v. Obama on government data collection. While on the U.S. Supreme Court, Kavanaugh's notable opinions included McKinney v. Arizona, in which Kavanaugh held that a state appellate court could reweigh aggravating or mitigating circumstances in cases concerning the death penalty, and Barton v. Barr, in which he held that a lawfully admitted permanent resident not seeking admission to the United States can be "render[ed] ... inadmissible." Kavanaugh also joined the 6-3 majority and authored a concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, holding that the U.S. Constitution did not provide a right to abortion.

Professional career

• 2018-Present: Associate justice, U.S. Supreme Court
• 2006-2018: Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
• 2003-2006: Assistant to President George W. Bush (R) and staff secretary
• 2001-2003: Associate counsel for the Executive Branch
• 1998: Associate counsel, Office of Independent Counsel
• 1994-1997: General counsel, Judiciary Branch
• 1993-1994: Law clerk, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
• 1992-1993: Staff attorney, U.S. Office of the Solicitor General
• 1991-1992: Law clerk, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski
• 1990-1991: Law clerk, Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Walter Stapleton

Kavanaugh was a clerk to former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit, and Judge Walter Stapleton of the Third Circuit. He also worked on a one-year fellowship in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States under Kenneth Starr. During that time, he worked on the Whitewater Investigation.

Kavanaugh was also a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis and served as an associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel.

After George W. Bush (R) was elected as president, Kavanaugh was senior associate counsel and associate counsel to the president and then served as assistant to the president and staff secretary. Kavanaugh was serving in this role when Bush nominated him to the D.C. Circuit, and he was sworn in June 1, 2006.

Early life and education

Born in Washington, D.C., Kavanaugh attended Georgetown Preparatory School. He graduated from Yale College with his bachelor's degree in 1987 and from Yale Law School with his J.D. in 1990.

Approach to the law

In a 2017 speech before the American Enterprise Institute on former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Kavanaugh said, "[a]s I see it, the Constitution is primarily a document of majestic specificity, and those specific words have meaning. Absent constitutional amendment, those words continue to bind us as judges, legislators, and executive officials."

Oyez, a law project created by Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, Justia, and Chicago-Kent College of Law, identified Kavanaugh as a member of the court's conservative bloc. It said that while on the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh "predictably established a conservative track record on a range of hot-button issues."

At SCOTUSBlog, Adam Feldman wrote in July 2020 that "Although conservatives might have envisioned Kavanaugh’s arrival at the court – replacing the more moderate Kennedy – as likely to solidify a strong right wing on the court, this has not been clearly the case. [John] Roberts and Kavanaugh have both been frequent members of the court’s majority in each of the past two terms, with Roberts in the majority appreciably more this term (97%) than last (85%), and Kavanaugh at 93% this term compared to 88% last term."

Martin-Quinn score

Kavanaugh's Martin-Quinn score following the 2023-2024 term was 0.53, making him the fifth-most conservative justice on the court at that time. Martin-Quinn scores were developed by political scientists Andrew Martin and Kevin Quinn from the University of Michigan, and measure the justices of the Supreme Court along an ideological continuum. The further from zero on the scale, the more conservative (>0) or liberal (<0) the justice. The chart below details every justice's Martin-Quinn score for the 2023-2024 term. These are preliminary scores provided by Kevin Quinn that may differ slightly from the final version of the scores that Martin and Quinn will make publicly available at a later date.