Brett Kavanaugh Joins U.S. Supreme Court

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2018/10/07/brett-kavanaugh-joins-u-s-supreme-court/

Brett Kavanaugh is the newest justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The judge was sworn in Saturday after the U.S. Senate voted 50-48 to confirm him.

The two-vote margin is the closest Supreme Court confirmation vote since 1881.

Among last-minute fence-sitters, U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), and Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) all voted for Kavanaugh.

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) initially voted no – the lone Republican to do so. But she subsequently withdrew her vote as a favor to U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana), who was absent because he attended his daughter’s wedding in Montana. Daines would have voted yes, so it would have countered Murkowski’s no. The pairing of Daines’s non-vote and Murkowski’s withdrawal leaves the outcome with the same two-vote margin it would have had if both senators had voted.

Senators voted amid loud and continuing protests from the Senate gallery that at times interrupted the roll call.