President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on July 8, 2018, to fill the position vacated by retiring justice Anthony Kennedy. Judge Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as the 114th Justice of the Supreme Court on the evening of October 6, 2018, after the Senate confirmed him to the Supreme Court after contentious hearings with a 50–48 vote. All Republican senators except Steve Daines, who was attending his daughter’s wedding in Montana, and Lisa Murkowski, voted to approve the nomination, and all Democrats voted in opposition, except Joe Manchin who voted to approve the nomination. Kavanaugh’s confirmation margin of only two votes is the closest successful confirmation vote of a Supreme Court nominee since Stanley Matthews’ 24–23 confirmation in 1881.
Kavanaugh’s Constitutional Oath was administered by Chief Justice Roberts, and the Judicial Oath was administered by retired Associate Justice Kennedy, whom Kavanaugh succeeded on the Court.
Nathan Lewin is a renowned Orthodox Jewish lawyer who has engaged in trial and appellate litigation in federal and state courts for 40 years.
As an assistant to the solicitor general in the Department of Justice under Archibald Cox and Thurgood Marshall, Lewis argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court. Since entering private practice, he has argued in the Supreme Court another 15 times, for a total of 27 arguments in the Supreme Court. His Supreme Court cases have included issues of constitutional law regarding the status of Jerusalem and religious liberty.
Mr. Lewin spoke to Ami this past Monday.
Q: What’s your take on the swearing-in of Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice?
A: I’m very happy. I think that with Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas and Roberts there are five very strong votes for religious liberty. I think that this is the best Supreme Court that the American Orthodox Jewish community has ever had—at least in my lifetime.
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